THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

NURSERY  ETHICS 

FROM  THE  CHILD'S  STANDPOINT 

THE  CHILDREN'S  HEALTH 

SOUTHERN  HEARTS 

VACATION  HINTS 

PRINCIPLES  OF  CORRECT  DRESS 

NOVEL  WAYS  OF  ENTERTAINING 

CHARACTERS  OF  DICKENS 

POPULAR  EDITION,  ILLUSTRATED; 
ALSO,  EDITION  DE  LUXE 


HE  MOT     ER    N 


EDUCAr  ION 


By 
Florence  Hull  Winterburn 

Author  of  Nursery  Ethics,  F/om  the  Child" g  Stand- 
point, The  Children's  Health,  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

McBRIDE,  NAST  &  COMPANY 
1914 


Copyright,    1914,    by 
McBamE,  NAST  &  Co. 


Published  October,  1914 


DEDICATION 

To  the  Rich  Mother,  with  unlimited  opportunity  to 
start  her  children  in  life  well  equipped  with  broad 
culture ; 

To  the  Poor  Mother,  making  up  in  the  keenness  of  her 
intelligence,  the  zeal  of  her  affection,  for  the  depriva- 
tion of  mere  money  to  carry  out  her  worthy  ambi- 
tions ; 

To  the  Cultured  Mother,  filled  with  enthusiasm  for 
her  ideals,  and  able  to  direct  her  sons  and  daughters 
better  than  any  other  teacher; 

To  the  Simple  Mother,  who  doubts  her  ability  to  give 
her  children  that  aid  no  other  can  give  so  well; 
To  all  the  Mothers  of  our  beloved  America,  looked 
upon  with  hope  and  faith  by  the  rest  of  the  world  now, 
as  the  destined  agents  for  the  up-building  of  the  race; 
This  book  is  humbly  dedicated  by  the  author. 


FOREWORD 

IS  there  any  joy  so  pure  and  complete  as  that  of 
seeing  a  young  nature  unfolding  day  by  day 
under  your  influence  and  training  ?     And  when 
that  child  is  your  own,  and  all  the  comfort  and 
recompense  of  his  development  will  belong  to  you, 
does  not  the  pleasure  of  his  education,  so  far  as  you 
can  contribute  to  it,  become  irresistible? 

Believing  as  I  do,  that  an  intelligent  mother  can 
do  wonderful  things  in  the  mental  education  of  her 
child,  as  well  as  in  that  far  more  important  matter, 
development  of  his  character,  I  put  it  forward  noty 
only  as  an  urgent  duty,  but  as  one  of  a  woman's  best 
privileges,  to  give  of  her  higher  energies  to  her  child's 
Hevelopment. 

The  .great  lesson  of  this  century  is  that  of  a  broader 
humanity.  We  are  best  when  we  give  out  most, 
smallest  when  we  live  merely  for  ourselves.  The  fine 
privilege  of  an  equal  education  with  men  has  been 
given  to  women.  Surely,  they  can  employ  it  in  no 


FOREWORD 

better  way  than  in  giving  to  the  world  better  citizens. 

In  education  the  beginning  is  everything.  Happy 
is  that  child  whose  foundation  has  been  well  laid  at 
home,  before  he  goes  to  school  where  he  will  be  dealt 
with  as  one  of  a  crowd !  What  I  state  I  have  proved 
by  practice.  I  know  that  school  education  can  be 
shortened  by  several  years  through  the  efforts  of  a 
mother,  and  that  nothing  outside  can  supply  the  place 
of  an  atmosphere  of  home  culture. 

Nor  is  the  work  complicated  or  hard.  The 
scheme  outlined  in  this  book  is  so  practical  and  sim- 
ple that  it  will  surely  appeal  to  all  mothers  who  de- 
sire to  do  their  best  by  their  children.  To  such  I 
dedicate  it,  with  the  earnest  hope  that  they  may  find 
as  much  satisfaction  in  it  as  I  did  while  working  it 
out  in  actual  practice. 

For  permission  to  reproduce  some  matter  which  has 
appeared  in  their  pages  in  the  form  of  magazine  arti- 
cles thanks  are  due  the  Woman's  Home  Companion 
and  the  New  England  Magazine. 

F.  H.  W. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION ..:.>..       i 

I     THE  INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE       ....       1 
II    How  MOTHERS  MAY  HELP  EACH  OTHEB     .     .     .16 

III  THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY 33 

IV  THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK 49 

V    THE  MOTHER  TONGUE        63 

VI    CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION 81 

VII     IMAGINATION  PLAYS 100 

VIII    NATURE  STUDIES 116 

IX     FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER 129 

X    MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR 147 

XI    THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING 160 

XII  SELF-EXPRESSION  THROUGH  DRAWING    ....  179 

XIII  EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS 198 

XIV  CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE 216 

XV    FOREIGN  LANGUAGES 237 

XVI    ACCOMPLISHMENTS 257 

XVII    INFANT  POLITICIANS 270 

XVIII    THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TRAVEL 283 

XIX    TALENTED  CHILDREN 296 

XX    ESTHETIC  EDUCATION 310 

XXI     CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY 324 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  .  337 


THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 


INTRODUCTION 

IN  starting  out  upon  any  work  we  first  try  to 
classify  our  materials,  putting  together  all  those 
things  that  are  related,  and  setting  aside  those 
that  are  incongruous  with  our  general  plan.  What 
builder,  wishing  to  construct  a  cement  house,  would 
have  a  pile  of  granite  blocks  occupying  the  center 
space  in  his  lot  ?  Or  what  housekeeper,  intending  to 
make  cake,  would  begin  by  setting  out  an  array  of 
pots  and  skillets  on  her  working  table  ?  In  order  to 
get  the  best  results  the  artist  who  has  an  oil  painting 
in  hand  concentrates  his  mind  altogether  on  the  proc- 
ess of  oil  painting,  eliminating  for  the  time  everything 
belonging  to  crayon  or  water  colors,  and  devoting 
himself  entirely  to  the  work  he  is  setting  out  to  do. 

This  is  the  law  for  the  reformer  in  morals  and  for 
the  educator  also.  The  very  first  thing  that  either  of 
them  try  to  effect  is  the  separation  of  classes  of  in- 
dividuals according  to  certain  well  known  qualities. 
Then,  when  they  have  their  soldiers  drawn  up  in  line 


ii  INTRODUCTION 

they  go  to  work  to  drill  them,  and  subject  them  to 
disciplinary  regulations  which  are  made  according  to 
the  standardizing  of  their  several  capacities.  For  the 
purpose  of  show  nothing  could  be  better.  It  is  a 
pretty  sight  to  see  a  crowd  moving  in  harmony,  unit- 
ing their  voices  in  a  stirring  song,  wearing  almost  the 
same  expression  of  countenance  as  they  are  inspired 
with  the  same  sentiment  of  patriotism  or  devotion. 
They  look  very  much  alike  and  form  a  perfect  com- 
munity so  long  as  the  necessity  for  acting  together 
keeps  them  joined.  This  is  all  that  their  disciplina- 
rians either  attempt  or  effect.  The  instant  they  are 
let  loose  from  one  another  things  begin  to  happen. 
Nature  has  a  chance  to  re-act  against  artificial  re- 
straints, and  the  individual  shows  what  his  raw  ma- 
terial consists  in,  separated  from  that  part  of  him 
which  has  been  so  nicely  drilled. 

Who  has  not  marked  with  some  interest  the  sailors 
taking  their  shore  leave  from  a  man-of-war?  They 
go  about  the  town  near  which  their  ship  is  anchored, 
not  singly,  but  in  groups,  leaning  up  against  one  an- 
other, as  dependent  as  schools  of  fish,  almost  as  help- 
less as  the  fish  to  resist  baits  thrown  to  them  by  exploit- 
ers of  their  simplicity.  If  one  gets  off  by  himself  he 


Ill 

is  almost  certain  to  fall  into  mischief.  Then  he  is 
punished  like  a  child,  and  not  allowed  more  leave  for 
some  time,  in  order  that  he  may  learn  to  obey  certain 
rules  of  conduct  that  have  come  to  answer  for  him  in 
the  place  of  self-imposed  moral  standards.  But  there 
are  always  sailors  who  are  above  the  average;  who 
incur  no  punishments,  who  are  trustworthy  and  be- 
yond the  reach  of  common  temptations.  They  are  the 
sailors  who  come  of  good  families,  who  have  had  some 
training  at  home  before  entering  the  navy,  whose  in- 
telligence has  been  developed  in  childhood  and  whom 
their  mothers  taught  things  never  learned  so  wrell  in 
later  life.  Or  else  they  belong  to  that  brave,  rare 
squad,  the  self-educated,  who  have  some  fine  instinct 
in  them  that  puts  them  above  the  average  man,  and 
who,  despite  all  obstacles  and  stumbling  blocks  work 
out  their  own  salvation.  But  it  is  at  a  terrible  waste 
of  life  and  strength.  In  moral  training  as  in  all  mat- 
ters of  education  the  beginning  is  everything.  It 
takes  more  time  and  power  to  undo  a  wrong  beginning 
and  go  straight  afterwards  than  to  live  two  ordinary 
lives,  where  the  beginning  has  been  normal. 

Now,  similarly,  the  schools  drill  children  in  squads, 
rating  them  according  to  the  most  general  rules,  stand- 


iv  INTRODUCTION 

ardizing  their  capacities  on  the  hedonistic  principle 
of  the  best  good  for  the  greater  number  even  though 
injustice  must  thereby  be  done  to  exceptional  pupils. 
For  the  learning  of  facts  the  system  is  fair  enough, 
although  even  there  those  gifted  with  the  best  mem- 
ories will  forge  ahead  of  the  rest  and  then  weary  for 
new  matter  long  before  the  others  are  ready  for  it. 
But  superficially  looked  at  the  results  are  very  strik- 
ing. Twenty  children,  a  hundred,  a  thousand  chil- 
dren, all  with  eager,  interested  faces,  looking  and  lis- 
tening, imbibing  knowledge  according  to  the  easy 
fashion  of  present  day  instruction,  and  seemingly 
making  rapid  progress  in  science,  literature  and  his- 
tory. Looked  at  in  the  mass  there  is  no  appreciable 
difference  in  them,  or  in  their  ability  to  receive  and  di- 
gest learning.  The  most  efficient  system  that  educa- 
tional reformers  have  been  able  to  devise  is  now  in 
operation  in  all  our  better  schools,  and  nothing  that 
can  be  done  to  make  learning  easy  has  been  neglected. 
Constant  improvements  are  being  made  in  the  class- 
ifying system,  strenuous  efforts  attempted  in  the  way 
of  "  individualizing  "  instruction  so  as  to  bring  out  the 
natural  ability  of  the  child.  It  is  heroic,  this  enthu- 
siasm of  teachers  to  separate  from  the  mass  particular 


INTRODUCTION  v 

atoms  and  minister  to  their  personal  needs.  But  they 
have  a  work  in  hand  here  that  must  always  be  in- 
creasingly difficult ;  that  is  beset  by  drawbacks  that  no 
enthusiasm  can  overcome,  because  they  are  planted  on 
the  bed-rock  soil  of  natural  differences  not  possible  to 
be  understood  by  strangers  or  appreciated  by  any 
one  who  is  not  intimately  acquainted  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  child  from  the  very  beginning  of  his 
life. 

Moreover,  in  justice  to  all,  no  exceptions  may  be 
made  in  the  regulations  that  are  for  the  welfare  of  the 
mass.  If  a  certain  child  is  to  be  taken  out  of  the 
mass  on  account  of  one  particular  quality  yet  can- 
not be  elevated  to  the  class  above  on  account  of  not 
being  up  to  its  standard  in  other  essentials,  he  must 
remain  where  he  is,  with  his  efficiency  standardized 
according  to  its  lowest  manifestation.  Not  only  in 
the  big  schools  does  this  difficulty  arise  but  in  every 
school.  One  of  a  principal's  chief  troubles  is  to  clas- 
sify his  pupils  especially  when  his  classes  are  small, 
and  his  boast  is  that  he  gives  "  individual "  instruc- 
tion. Always  the  one  rule  must  be  observed  because 
getting  away  from  it  is  an  impossibility:  the  child 
must  be  rated  according  to  his  ignorance  and  not  ac- 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

cording  to  his  knowledge.  He  will  be  taught  that 
which  he  has  no  use  for  along  with  that  which  he 
should  have  because  the  others  need  both.  He  must 
lose  time  and  energy  because  his  loss  is  a  necessary 
part  of  the  game  that  plays  fair  with  the  rest. 

So  he  is  drilled  with  his  class.  Again,  it  is  a  fair 
and  sightly  instance  of  modern  methods  in  education, 
this  drama  of  crowds  of  young  people  all  having  the 
same  general  outside  appearance  of  knowledge,  all 
having,  as  the  valedictorians  say,  "  traversed  the  same 
paths  of  learning,  and  now  separating  for  their  indi- 
vidual careers."  But  now  that  the  mutual  depend- 
ence of  class  interests  and — to  be  frank — class  aid 
secretly  practised,  is  over  and  each  tub  stands  on  its 
own  bottom,  what  will  be  the  fate  of  the  tub  ?  If  it 
is  a  leaky  vessel,  a  defective  individuality,  now  is  the 
time  when  all  its  defects  will  become  painfully  ap- 
parent. Idiosyncrasies  will  start  into  relief,  never 
having  been  suspected  while  the  crowd  concealed  them, 
and  deficiencies  unprovided  for  by  a  system  that  ap- 
plied to  all  will  make  the  individual  quake  with  a 
sense  of  ignorance  and  overwhelm  him  with  a  convic- 
tion of  being  at  a  disadvantage  with  life.  Diogenes 
in  his  tub  was  well  enough,  but  how  about  a  troupe 


INTRODUCTION"  vii 

of  Diogeneses,  all  at  odds  with  the  world  and  deter- 
mined to  be  eccentric  ? 

The  school  trains  children  well  for  community 
needs,  for  citizenship  and  the  exigencies  of  war  and 
fires.  It  opens  up  to  them  the  world  of  literature  and 
science  by  teaching  them  the  letters.  It  offers  them 
a  liberal  knowledge  of  business  and  the  arts  by  the 
power  to  read  the  newspapers.  It  sends  them  forth 
fortified  in  soul  by  acquaintance  with  heroes  of-  his- 
tory and  by  reiterated  rules  of  conduct  that  apply  to 
all  their  public  relations  with  one  another.  All  this 
is  within  its  function,  and  it  performs  its  duty  well. 

But  there  arje  things  that  the  school  cannot  teach, 
that  it  can  never  teach  though  it  should  burst  in 
the  effort,  and  these  things  are  what  make  life  most 
\  worth  the  living.  The  best  system  of  school  instruc- 
tion that  can  be  devised  can  only  effect  the  partial 
development  of  a  human  being.  All  those  qualities 
that  are  peculiarly  his  own,  that  make  him  "  differ- 
ent "  and  consequently  valuable  to  himself,  are  un- 
touched by  methods  of  instruction  that  have  treated 
him  simply  as  a  member  of  the  community.  He 
has  been  taught  to  read;  it  may  be  a  blessing,  it 
may  be  a  curse.  That  depends  upon  the  bent  of  his 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

mind;  upon  the  kind  of  influences  his  character  has 
been  subjected  to  for  the  larger  period  of  his  growth 
and  development,  which  is  manifestly  that  portion 
of  his  time  that  is  or  ought  to  be  spent  at  home. 
If  it  is  spent  in  the  street  then  so  much  the  worse. 
But  in  any  event  it  is  a  thing  apart  from  the  school. 
The  tastes  and  tendencies  that  have  been  encouraged 
in  him  either  by  a  wise  parent  or  by  his  comrades 
in  the  street  will  decide  his  destiny;  not  the  fact 
of  his  knowing  who  Abraham  Lincoln  was.  Not 
knowledge  but  our  sympathies  inspire  us  to  any  sort 
of  action;  and  sympathy  is  a  matter  of  infantile 
habit.  The  child  learns  to  be  hard  and  cruel  or 
generous  and  forbearing  from,  his  mother.  Else  in 
the  furnace  of  affliction,  else  not  at  all.  And  out  of 
his  sympathies  comes  his  rank  in  the  world.  Noth- 
ing can  gain  place  for  him,  nothing  limit  him  but 
his  capacity  for  sympathy,  which  is  the  force  that 
moves  his  intelligence.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  school 
to  shut  the  door  against  the  very  display  of  person- 
ality which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  individual  de- 
velopment. Even  if  an  odd  teacher  encourages  the 
expression  of  unusual  ideas  the  school  community  in 
general  will  hoot  it  down.  Consequently  it  is  a  mat- 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

ter  of  anxious  effort  on  the  part  of  the  unusual  child 
to  conceal  his  eccentricities.  He  endeavors  with  all 
his  might  to  be  n.o  better  and  no  worse  than  the 
average  of  his  class ;  no  wiser  and  not  more  ignorant, 
to  be  the  essential  opposite  probably,  of  what  he  de- 
sires to  be,  in  order  to  subserve  the  ends  of  popular- 
ity. 

Tlie  child  should  be  educated  as  an  individual.  If 
he  ca-nnot  get  the  education  at  school  is  he  to  go  with- 
out it?  There  are  many  children  who  apparently 
must  go  without  it ;  the  children  of  parents  who  are 
too  ignorant  or  too  busy  to  do  their  duty.  For  emi- 
grants, for  the  very  poor  and  ignorant  the  school 
steps  in  and  offers  a  makeshift  at  this  work.  It  has 
tried  hard  to  fulfil  the  duty  of  "  character  building  " 
which  implies  the  development  of  qualities  and  tal- 
ents, of  tastes  and  habits ;  and  in  the  case  of  the  docile 
ignoramus,  having  no  offset  at  home  which  he  can 
respect  so  much  as  he  respects  his  teacher,  no  code 
that  disagrees,  no  social  influences  that  re-mold  his 
ideas,  it  answers.  It  is  better  than  no  effort  at  all. 
But  are  parents  who  have  means  and  leisure,  who 
have  culture  not  only  above  the  average  but  capacity 
that  seeks  an  outlet  beyond  the  routine  of  daily  work, 


x  INTRODUCTION 

who  yearn  for  opportunities  to  benefit  the  world,  are 
these  in  the  right  to  leave  the  individuality  of  their 
child  to  be  treated  in  the  rough  as  the  nature  of  the 
less  fortunate  is  ?  This  is  not  equality  but  brutality. 
This  is  losing  the  advantage  of  possessing  the  means 
of  the  higher  education  and  putting  our  child  down 
again  on  the  level  from  which  his  family  has  arisen 
by  its  own  worth. 

Every  child  should  have  the  best  possible  start  in 
the  race.  If  he  can  be  entered  in  class  B  he  should 
not  be  su*ik  to  class  J  or  K.  An  immense  quantity 
of  time  and  power  may  be  saved  not  only  to  himself 
but  to  the  state  by  his  receiving  at  home  all  the  previ- 
ous education  his  parents  can  give  him.  If  the  child 
of  educated  parents  could  be  entered  in  school  in  the 
rank  above  the  primary  grade  that  grade  could  be 
left  for  the  advantage  of  those  who  have  not  the  good 
fortune  to  possess  educated  parents.  The  child  of 
happier  chance  would  not  then  have  his  budding  am- 
bition to  make  rapid  progress  weakened  and  stultified 
by  being  kept  back  with  a  weaker  class,  and  that  class 
would  be  enabled  to  proceed  at  the  leisurely  rate 
agreeing  with  its  relatively  lower  intelligence.  It 
is  both  a  selfish  and  hedonistic  proposition,  taking 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

account  of  the  best  welfare  of  our  own  child  first 
but  giving  heed  also  to  the  real  welfare  of  the  mass 
outside.  The  one  objection  that  may  be  urged  against 
removing  the  child  of  cultured  parentage  from  as- 
sociation with  those  of  ignorant  parents  at  the  stage 
of  primary  training,  to  the  seeming  loss  of  the  latter, 
is  met  in  this  way:  in  infancy  the  influence  of  evil 
— and  ignorance  is  to  be  so  ranked  in  this  connection 
— is  much  stronger  than  the  influence  for  good  among 
those  of  equal  age.  The  less  intelligent  child,  or 
child  whose  intelligence  is  not  developed,  will  be  more 
prominent  through  his  ignorance  than  the  better  in- 
structed child  is  through  his  ability.  Every  solecism 
committed  by  the  child  who  comes  into  social  circles 
above  his  experience  furnishes  food  for  comment  and 
conceit  in  his  more  fortunate  companions.  He  would 
himself  rate  it  a  joy  to  escape  this  ordeal  until  he 
shall  have  received  a  little  more  preparation.  And 
the  superior  child  would  also  have  the  advantage  of 
being  only  among  his  compeers  for  that  period  of  his 
life  when  his  mind  is  at  its  most  susceptible  state  for 
receiving  impressions.  Conceit  would  be  kept  down 
in  him  and  ambition  stimulated.  He  would  feel  the 
need  of  doing  his  best  in  order  to  keep  his  place 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

among  those  as  well  prepared  as  himself.  The  aver- 
age standard  would  be  raised  by  the  superiority  of 
individuals. 

The  school  is  a  world  by  itself.  Does  any  one 
doubt  that  it  is  better  for  the  individual  to  enter  into 
this  world  fortified  against  evil  influences  by  a  char- 
acter previously  strengthened  by  some  mental  disci- 
pline than  to  go  forth  as  tender  as  an  unfledged 
chicken  ? 

One  of  the  objections  brought  against  large  schools 
by  careful  parents  is  that  of  bad  associations.  The 
weight  and  truth  of  this  objection  is  much  greater 
than  is  commonly  known  when  it  is  uttered.  But 
it  is  done  away  with  when  the  child  mingling  with 
ignorant  or  vicious  children  knows  enough  to  resist 
evil  and  to  afford  an  example  of  better  conduct.  If 
he  has  received  at  home  the  essential  preliminary  ed- 
ucation he  can  go  through  that  ordeal  unscathed.  A 
strong  individuality  is  powerful  against  low  com- 
munity influences. 

Only  in  the  home  can  the  child  properly  develop 
his  individuality.  Let  parents  cease  to  believe  that 
they  do  their  whole  duty  in  sending  their  child  to 
school.  A  complete  education  must  combine  the 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

community  teaching  of  the  school  with  the  individ- 
ual teaching  of  the  home.  Putting  aside  the 
question  of  physical  and  moral  education,  even 
intellectual  education  itself  depends  for  its  best  in- 
terests largely  upon  parents.  For  mental  activity 
starts  from  feeling,  and  all  the  higher  thoughts 
that  come  to  us  as  the  result  of  knowledge  have 
their  springs  deep  down  in  our  emotional  life. 
What  we  learn  to  admire,  what  we  learn  to  love  in 
our  earlier  years,  becomes  the  object  of  our  ambition 
in  maturity;  and  as  will  is  merely  a  wish  turned 
into  an  action,  and  our  ultimate  character  is  the  result 
of  willing,  it  is  evident  that  the  most  powerful  agents 
of  our  destiny  are  those  that  first  stir  up  in  us  aspira- 
tions and  intentions. 

Is  it  not  important  then,  that  the  parent  who  pos- 
sesses the  influence  to  mold  character  should  exert  it 
intelligently  ?  Is  it  not  a  mother's  duty  to  give  all 
the  time  and  pains  necessary  to  that  individual  edu- 
cation of  her  children  that  can  only  be  carried  on  in 
the  home  and  under  her  supervision?  Household 
work  is  becoming  every  day  more  scientific  and  con- 
sequently less  arduous ;  women  have  more  and  more 
time  for  the  higher  things  of  life:  what  is  higher 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

than  the  training  of  the  young  beings  given  into  their 
charge  ? 

,  Perfect  education  is  the  blending  of  home  care  with 
school  discipline,  the  uniting  of  individual  develop- 
ment with  community  life.  To  the  school  belongs  its 
indispensable  part  but  to  the  parent  belongs  a  duty 
that  is  even  more  important.  If  the  child  could  re- 
ceive but  one  part  of  his  education  I  doubt  very  much 
if  it  would  not  be  better  for  his  ultimate  welfare  that 
his  character  should  be  trained  and  his  intelligence 
developed  by  a  home  education  than  that  he  should 
miss  this  entirely  and  only  profit  by  school  discipline. 
It  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  assump- 
tion that  the  individuals  who  are  leaders  in  the  world 
in  the  cause  of  humanity  have  had  mothers  whose 
characters  have  been  an  influence  in  their  lives,  while 
those  who  stand  for  everything  that  makes  against  the 
general  welfare  have  been  early  thrown  upon  the  care 
of  the  state  for  their  entire  training  and  have  missed 
the  gentler  culture  of  the  home. 


THE 
MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE 

"  Everywhere  throughout  this  nation  the  School  of  Home 
was  the  most  important  detail  of  the  educational  system. 
Woman  gave  her  time  to  managing  it,  by  love  and  being 
loved.  Real  love  it  was,  born  of  her  minute  knowledge  of 
her  children  and  their  faith  in  her.  Continual  association 
only  could  produce  such  love  and  faith. 

"  We  have  abandoned  the  home  school  and  almost  all  its 

principles.    It  made  men.    We  educate  our  children  by  the 

thousand  and  no  longer  by  the  one.     Our  learning,  like 

'  much  of  our  living,  has  been  syndicated.    But  Jhe  men 

(whom  we  have  given  to  the  world,  who  put  humanity  into 

/their  debt,  were  mother-taught  in  the  little  School  of  the 

Home.     Washington,     Webster,     Lincoln,    Greeley,    Mark 

Twain,  Edison  —  all  were  educated  in  it.    It  was  the  cradle 

of  American  preeminence.     Mother  was  a  potent  word  in 

those  days,  strange  as  that  may  seem  to  children  of  the  ris- 

1 


2          THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

ing  generation.     We  men  know  that  any  country  can  be 
•••fxmade  or  unmade  by  its  mothers." — IRVING  BACHELLER. 

HE  was  sitting  on  the  door-sill,  this  blue- 
eyed  mite  of  four,,  his  rosebud  mouth 
slightly  open,  and  his  fair  little  brows 
slightly  puckered,  while  his  unsteady  baby  fingers  es- 
sayed to  stand  a  certain  troublesome  block  on  top  of 
his  tower.  For  half  an  hour  he  had  been  working,  and 
the  moment  of  triumphant  result  was  at  hand.  He 
was  too  absorbed  to  hear  approaching  footsteps,  and 
started  in  alarm  as  a  quick,  impatient  man's  voice 
sounded  in  his  ears,  "What  are  you  making  such  a 
litter  in  the  doorway  for  ?  Into  the  house  with  you, 
Teddy.  Here,  let  me  pass,  I'm  in  a  hurry." 

And  with  a  careless,  rough  sweep  of  his  cane  the 
father  cast  aside  the  pile  of  toys  and  made  his  way 
down  town  in  a  perfectly  complacent  frame  of  mind 
and  with  not  the  least  idea  of  the  ruin  his  momentary 
irritation  had  wrought.  But  oh,  the  pity  of  it ! 
,  Where  the  stately  tower  had  stood,  wrought  with  such 
patience  by  those  small,  weak  fingers,  was  only  an 
unsightly  pile  of  blocks.  And  where  in  the  soul  of  the 
baby  architect  had  been  elation,  hope,  pride,  at  the 
crisis  of  an  achievement,  were  grief  and  disappoint- 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE       3 

ment,  and  something  harder  to  bear — a  dumb,  vague 
resentment  against  the  world  which  treated  him  thus 
contemptuously. 

But  as  he  fought  with  two  big  tears  a  gentle  arm 
came  about  his  neck  and  a  soft  voice  cooed,  "  What 
is  the  matter  with  my  little  man?  The  nice  house 
had  a  tumble  ?  Mother  will  straighten  things  out  and 
then  sit  here  and  watch  Teddy  build  it  all  up  again. 
Cheer  up,  all  builders  have  some  troubles,  you  know. 
Be  a  good  sport !  " 

And  in  the  sunshine  of  his  mother's  sympathy  and 
understanding  the  mite  feels  it  possible  to  set  to  work 
with  fresh  energy,  and  contentment  and  peace  returns 
to  his  heart.  Well  for  his  soul  that  what  the  thought- 
less father  spoils  the  mother's  tender  fingers  restore. 
The  thing  meddled  with  was  not  simply  a  material 
object,  capable  of  sustaining  shocks  and  recovering, 
but  that  fragile,  intangible  thing  which  is  like  the  iri- 
descent light  playing  over  a  prism.  Break  the  glass 
and  it  is  gone.  Do  you  not  recollect  that  day  in  your 
childhood  when  after  a  period  of  anticipation  that 
seemed  like  years  to  you,  the  palpitating  moment 
approached  that  was  to  crown  the  work  that  had  cost 
many  moments  or  hours  of  self-sacrificing  effort,  and 


4          THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

some  ruthless  authority,  knowing  nothing  of  your 
hopes  and  plans,  spoiled  your  little  house  of  mirth? 
Perhaps  only  yesterday  a  meddlesome  hand  knocked 
over  some  one  of  your  hopeful  houses  of  cards.  You 
know  well  the  sting  of  the  disappointment ;  the  feeling 
that  the  world  has  not  appreciated  you,  but  has,  on 
the  contrary,  given  you  a  cruel  rebuff.  So  flees  hap- 
piness. 

Of  all  the  millions  of  little  ones,  busy  at  this  hour 
with  their  trivial  occupations,  silly  to  adult  eyes,  but 
covering,  if  we  could  see  beneath  the  surface,  a  mighty 
ebb  and  flow  of  human  passions,  how  many  are  being 
hurt  and  baffled  every  second  by  some  thoughtless  act 
of  their  elders!  Yet  these  elders  are  seldom  moved 
by  the  deliberate  wish  to  do  injury  to  children.  They 
merely  lack  sympathy,  and  consequently,  understand- 
ing. The  evil  they  do  comes  from  their  absorption  in 
what  they  please  to  term  the  practical,  important  con- 
cerns of  life.  Grown  people  are  mostly  in  haste  to 
go  about  their  business,  and  they  believe  themselves 
justified  in  knocking  over  or  scattering  whatever  lies 
in  their  path.  Fathers  must  earn  the  living,  and  in 
their  headlong  rush  after  the  nimble  dollar  they  do  not 
pause  long  enough  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHEK  LOVE        5 

dramas  they  catch  glimpses  of  from  time  to  time  in 
their  homes.  The  unfolding  of  the  delicate  buds  of 
child  character  is  a  mystery  they  do  not  undertake  to 
fathom.  And  the  habit  of  indifference  begets  a  cer-* 
tain  callousness  or  cynicism  that  is  the  last  blow  to 
confidential  relations. 

I  have  known  a  very  few  men  who  had  the  gift  of 
a  maternal  instinct,  so  that  when  the  mother  of  the 
family  passed  away  they  were  able  to  supply  the  place 
of  a  woman  in  the  care  of  their  children.  Such  men 
had  very  curiously,  the  feminine  nature;  and  they 
were  not  successful  in  the  usual  pursuits  that  men 
undertake.  But  most  men  are  of  the  build  which 
takes  to  the  more  robust  occupations  of  life  and 
"  leaves  sentiment  to  women."  At  this  moment  a  lit-  * 
tie  scrutiny  into  conditions  reveals  that  modern 
women  also  disdain  sentiment  in  quite  a  manly  fash- 
ion and  consider  all  their  duty  done  when  they  pro- 
vide for  the  material  well-being  of  their  offspring. 
In  effect,  if  not  in  so  many  words,  numerous  mothers 
exclaim  daily,  "  Get  away,  little  soul,  while  I  trim  a 
dress  for  your  little  body.  I  like  better  to  use  a  needle 
and  busy  myself  with  this  pretty  fancy  work,  which 
allows  my  mind  to  be  idle,  than  to  strain  my  wits  try- 


6          THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ing  to  keep  up  with  the  race  of  jour  young  intellects 
or  weary  myself  developing  your  good  instincts  and 
checking  erring  tendencies.  Don't  make  demands 
upon  my  attention.  Let  me  alone !  " 

Ah,  mothers,  mothers,  you  know  not  what  you  do. 
It  were  better  to  deny  yourselves  the  indulgence  of 
pretty,  easy  work,  and  accept  the  great  work  which  is 
your  supreme  duty  on  earth,  and  the  one  fraught  with 
the  sweetest  blessing  humanity  knows.  There  is  no 
other  duty  so  exigent  to  a  woman  as  that  of  fostering 
and  protecting  the  happiness  of  a  child.  Through  the 
making  of  the  child's  happiness  she  can  develop  within 
him  the  seeds  of  goodness  more  effectually  than  if  she 
labored  sternly  and  assiduously  to  correct  his  faults. 
The  world  hardens  and  harshens  us,  but  deep  within 
our  hearts  there  always  lives  one  little  oasis  where 
brood  some  memories  of  our  childhood's  happy  days. 
And  when  the  meaner  impulses  of  our  nature  pull  us 
down  these  delicate  memories  swing  us  back  into  the 
right  path,  and  we  are  the  better  men  and  women 
because  once,  in  the  long  ago,  we  were  happy  children. 

No  wicked  man  is  wholly  wrong  if  he  can  look  back 
once  in  awhile  to  a  sweet,  wholesome  day  in  his  way- 
ward life.  No  erring  woman  is  lost  whose  eyes  brim 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE       7 

with  tears  as  there  rushes  across  her  vision  some  scene 
in  her  innocent  youth  when  the  sun  shone  on  a  brightly 
upturned  little  face,  and  dancing  baby  feet  keeping 
time  to  the  heart-beat  of  happiness.  But  there  is  not 
much  hope  for  the  regeneration  of  unhappy  men  and 
women  whose  childhood  was  barren  and  hard.  They 
might  pardon  circumstances  for  the  wreck  of  their 
lives,  but  for  a  miserable  childhood  they  cannot 
pardon  God. 

So  it  does  mean  something  when  we  carelessly  and 
roughly  turn  the  bright  hues  of  hope  in  a  baby  breast 
into  the  gloom  of  mourning.  It  means  something 
definite  and  very  important  to  his  future  when  a  lit- 
tle one  murmurs  into  a  tender  ear,  "  Mother,  I've  had 
a  happy  day !  " 

There  are  no  little  things  in  life.  The  airy  trifles 
are  the  mighty  forces  which  turn  the  material  wheels 
of  our  existence.  Who  knows  at  what  instant  we  are 
changing  the  tenor  of  a  human  career !  A  light  word 
at  the  wrong  time,  a  blighting  sentence  when  tender- 
ness was  needed,  mockery  when  one's  little  efforts 
should  have  been  treated  with  seriousness,  gloom  when 
the  mother's  eye  should  have  beamed  with  joy — all 
these  mistakes  are  the  spades  that  dig  graves  for 


8          THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

those  over  whom  our  influence  is  strong,  and  for  whose 
welfare  we  are  responsible. 

And  what  wonderful  things  mothers  have  done  for 
children  whose  trust  and  confidence  they  have  never 
lost !  The  artist  Elaxman  said  that  it  was  "  his 
i  mother's  smile  at  the  right  moment  which  made  him 
an  artist."  Napoleon  valued  the  good  opinion  of 
his  mother  more  than  that  of  any  other  person,  and 
at  the  height  of  his  glory  consulted  her  when  he  re- 
fused to  defer  to  another  mortal.  How  many  great 
statesmen  and  brave  soldiers  can  look  back  to  some  in- 
cident of  their  childhood  when  a  single  word  fitly 
spoken,  an  appreciative  smile  when  the  beginnings  of 
ambition  were  stirring  in  infantile  breasts,  furnished 
the  magnetism  that  set  their  ambition  afire! 

We  should  not  forget  that  it  is  emotion  that  supplies 
the  vital  force  for  all  enterprises.  Though  the  head 
plans  the  heart  directs,  and  a  child  that  is  down- 
hearted, discouraged,  at  odds  with  the  world,  cannot 
make  his  mind  work  as  it  should.  The  world  would 
cease  to  move  along,  even  in  a  mechanical  way,  were  it 
not  for  the  push  of  strong  feeling.  Eerrier  asserts 
that  the  springs  of  most  of  our  later  activities  are 
drawn  from  early  recollections  of  things  that  were 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHEE  LOVE       9 

agreeable  to  us,  or  that  provoked  in  us  some  strong 
desire.  It  is  one  of  the  peculiar  privileges  of  a 
mother  to  guide  her  child  aright  through  furnishing 
him  with  a  happy  environment;  to  bathe  him  from 
infancy  in  the  glow  of  sympathy,  to  encourage  him 
continually  by  her  understanding  of  his  immature 
but  perhaps  permanent  ambitions,  and  never  to  ridi- 
cule his  ideas,  however  absurd  they  may  seem.  The 
first  stirring  of  a  real  desire  may  be  an  hereditary 
impulse  toward  a  pursuit  for  which  the  child  has  a 
veritable  talent.  On  the  other  hand,  anything  that 
is  absolutely  nonsensical  will  soon  be  out-grown ;  the 
child  voluntarily  abandons  what  has  no  foundation 
in  common  experience. 

A  little  girl  of  ten  years,  whose  forebears  had  been 
in  several  instances  remarkable  linguists,  was  seized 
with  a  strange  ambition  to  invent  a  new  tongue. 
After  some  secret  attempts  to  twist  the  roots  of  her 
mother  tongue  to  strange  and  unnatural  usages,  she 
approached  her  mother  with  the  passionate  declara- 
tion that  if  she  had  to  give  her  life  to  the  object  she 
meant  to  invent  a  new  language.  The  mother  was  a 
discerning  woman.  Looking  thoughtful,  she  observed 
gently,  "  It's  a  great  idea.  But  there  are  a  good 


many  languages  in  the  world  now.  I  wonder  if  after 
i  all,  we  really  need  another  one?  However,  I'll  be 
glad  to  help  you  out  if  I  can.  If  you  get  into  diffi- 
culties come  to  me  and  we'll  talk  the  matter  over." 

She  never  had  to  talk  the  matter  over.  In  a  few 
days  the  child  had  discovered  for  herself  the  absurdity 
of  her  ambition.  But  she  began  to  cultivate  herself 
in  her  mother  tongue,  discovering  a  latent  talent  for 
languages  that  afterwards  led  her  to  the  study  of  sev- 
eral foreign  tongues  with  unusual  success.  The  nat- 
ural taste  had  an  eccentric  outburst  at  the  start  but 
ended  in  a  rational  aspiration. 

The  fact  that  a  strong  bent  leading  toward  a  useful 
pursuit  may  show  itself  in  a  grotesque  form  in  in- 
fancy, should  deter  us  from  ridiculing  any  singular 
occupation  in  a  child  that  has  a  real  end  in  view. 
There  may  be  a  genius  in  our  midst  without  our  know- 
ing it.  Often  apparently  dull  children  are  the  per- 
sons of  gifted  natures.  It  is  not  well  for  parents  to 
believe  that  their  geese  are  sure  to  turn  out  swans, 
but  it  is  encouraging  to  recollect  that  many  notable 
persons  were  hopelessly  obtuse  in  their  early  youth. 
Daniel  Webster  was  twice  sent  home  from  school 
as  an  "  incorrigible  dunce."  Dr.  Chalmers  was 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE     11 

solemnly  expelled  from  St.  Andrews  for  the  same 
reason,  and  Ludwig,  the  famous  mathematician,  was 
also  sent  away  from  school  after  four  years'  struggle 
with  elementary  arithmetic.  This  is  a  significant  re- 
flection on  his  teachers ! 

It  is  equally  remarkable  that  the  boy  Chatterton  — 
that  "  marvelous  boy  " —  was  considered  a  hopelessly 
dull  child  by  his  first  teachers.  Delmonichino,  the 
artist,  was  dubbed  by  his  discerning  comrades  "  the 
ox  "  for  his  clumsy  drawing,  and  it  is  said  that  Ho- 
garth once  excited  energetic  derision.  The  question 
must  suggest  itself  to  us  whether  we  are  capable  of 
pronouncing  judgment  upon  the  abilities  of  others, 
especially  at  the  incipient  stage  of  effort.  It  is  safer 
to  be  lenient  where  we  are  uncertain. 

There  are  people  who  do  not  believe  in  shielding 
a  child ;  in  making  its  life  "  too  tender."  But  they 
forget  that  it  takes  a  very  robust  nature  to  outlive 
a  shock  or  jar  that  stops  the  flow  of  mental  energy. 
If  it  were  possible  to  protect  a  child  altogether  from 
the  influence  of  terror  and  from  anger  we  should 
probably  be  surprised  at  its  increased  ability  for  men- 
tal effort.  The  child  who  is  so  surrounded  by  benefi- 
cent influences  that  he  stores  up  no  miserable  mem-: 


12        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ories  to  brood  over  is  a  thousand-fold  blessed,  for  he 
is  not  hindered  in  his  growth  in  intelligence.  Who 
can  say  how  much  mental  power  one  hateful  memory 
can  destroy ! 

In  pleading  for  the  sympathetic  environment  for 
the  child,  I  by  no  means  say  that  the  atmosphere  of 
home  ought  to  be  so  soft  as  to  be  enervating.  A 
i  mother  should  be  able  to  brace  her  child  by  her  coirn- 
\  sel,  uplift  him  by  her  wisdom  and  train  him  by  her 
steady  discipline.  One  of  the  first  lessons  she  will 
i  find  it  well  to  set  for  him  to  learn  is  to  be  in  earnest 
in  whatever  he  undertakes;  not  to  give  up  quickly, 
but  to  persevere  to  the  end.  "  The  thing  I  am  most 
grateful  to  my  mother  for  is  that  she  taught  me,  from 
the  time  I  can  first  recollect  anything,  to  be  thorough/' 
observed  a  successful  business  man  at  an  educational 
meeting.  Upon  looking  backward  many  of  us  could 
give  testimony  to  the  importance  attaching  to  this 
same  lesson.  I  attribute  much  of  a  certain  dogged 
patience  that  has  carried  me  past  some  discouraging 
places,  to  the  insistence  of  my  father  that  I  should 
always  untie  knots  in  strings  when  I  was  a  child.  I 
was  never  allowed  to  cut  one  with  the  scissors,  but 
had  to  sit  down  and  untangle  the  most  intricate  with 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE     13 

my  small  fingers,  until  the  untwisting  of  knots  be- 
came with  me  a  sort  of  pride,  and  in  my  life  I  have 
seen  but  one  I  was  unable  to  untie ;  and  that  was  tied 
by  a  sailor!  Not  the  work  itself  but  the  habit  of 
thoroughness  it  engendered  was  the  valuable  lesson, 
and  I  have  been  glad  since  of  the  hard  moments  I 
spent  on  a  stool,  untying  knots  in  rough  string. 

If  a  child  is  permitted  to  slur  over  his  small  tasks 
and  leave  everything  half  done  he  will  go  through 
life  shirking  larger  duties  as  well  as  small  ones,  and 
end  by  being  a  drag  upon  his  family  and  friends. 
From  the  time  the  baby  can  walk  alone  he  should  be 
taught  to  do  things  for  himself,  and  to  do  them  well. 
Let  him  come  to  have  a  pride  in  his  work.  Praise 
what  is  well  done,  and  merely  look  grave  over  what  is 
done  ill.  Scolding  never  made  a  good  workman. 
Make  the  child  critical  of  his  own  tasks,  and  bring 
him  to  have  a  conscience  in  his  work,  so  that  he  will 
never  be  contented  with  "  Well  enough."  Few  men 
or  women  make  failures  of  their  lives  who  have 
learned  in  childhood  to  be  thorough  and  in  every  task, 
small  or  large,  to  do  their  very  best. 

The  influence  of  pictures  and  of  mottoes  on  a 
child  just  beginning  to  learn  to  read  is  remarkable. 


14        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION" 

If  there  hangs  in  his  room  a  picture  with  a  meaning 
that  relates  to  his  own  life,  depicting  some  domestic 
scene  pleasantly,  as  many  pictures  of  the  Dutch  school 
do,  he  will  probably  never  forget  that  particular  pic- 
ture or  its  meaning  so  long  as  he  lives.  And  the  illu- 
minated mottoes  bearing  some  wise  but  not  pedanti- 
cal  saying,  Avill  engrave  itself  in  his  memory,  and  per- 
haps be  an  inspiration  to  him  throughout  the  years. 
Suppose  the  beautiful  epigram  of  Tennyson  con- 
fronts a  child  each  day  from  the  foot  of  his  bed: 
"  Self-knowledge,  self-reverence,  self-control,  these 
three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power."  Could  he 
help  being  impressed  despite  himself,  with  the  sig- 
nificance of  these  lines,  or  their  bearing  on  his  indi- 
vidual life  ?  Or  suppose  him  each  day  at  breakfast, 
faced  by  such  a  home  thrust  as  one  rather  popular  in 
some  households  — "  Life  is  only  one  darned  thing 
after  another."  Will  he  be  encouraged  in  well-doing 
by  that  ?  It  takes  a  seasoned  nature  to  throw  off  the 
shadow  of  a  pessimistic  philosophy.  I  have  been 
thankful  all  my  life  for  something  that  hung  about 
my  early  home ; — "  Thoroughly  to  believe  in  one's 
own  self,  so  one's  own  self  were  thorough,  were  to  do 
great  things." 


INSPIRATION  OF  MOTHER  LOVE     15 

Our  early  environment,  our  mother's  influence, 
may  make  or  mar  us,  not  only  morally  but  intellectu- 
ally and  practically.  Rusldn  was  right  when  he  said, 
"  Scatter  diligently  in  susceptible  minds  the  germs  of 
the  good  and  beautiful.  They  will  develop  there  to 
trees,  bud,  bloom,  and  bear  the  golden  fruits  of  Para- 
dise." 


CHAPTER  II 
How  MOTHERS  MAY  HELP  EACH  OTHER 

"A  Rennaisanee  tutor  was  appointed  for  Gargantua; 
the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  administer  a  potion  to  the  child 
to  make  him  forget  all  that  he  had  ever  learned." — • 
PAINTER. 

THE  fabled  Gargantua  was  the  model  French 
boy  whose  entire  training  was  faultless,  after 
it  was  definitely  taken  in  hand  by  the  right 
tutors.  But  it  appears  that  some  poor  instruction 
must  have  crept  in  during  those  early  years  when  he 
had  been  left  to  ordinary  teachers,  for  his  first  real 
teacher  found  it  necessary  to  throw  off  all  their  in- 
fluence —  by  administering  a  potion !  There  are 
many  mothers  who  would  like  to  have  the  recipe  for 
that  potion;  who  wishfully  murmur,  after  rescuing 
their  child  from  some  injudicious  advisor  or  com- 
panion,— "  Oh,  that  I  might  someway  make  this  child 
forget  what  he  has  just  been  taught  by  this  person !  " 

16 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER     17 

But  there  is  no  way  of  doing  it.  A  child's  memory- 
has  a  contrary  way  of  cherishing  up  exactly  that  item 
which  it  is  most  desirable  to  obliterate  from  his  mind. 
Some  crass  superstition  imparted  in  secret  by  a 
stupid  nurse,  some  narrow  view  impressed  by  a  dull 
teacher,  or  a  prejudice  shared  by  a  magnetic  comrade 
will  linger  for  years,  perhaps  for  life.  If  it  were 
possible  to  rear  a  child  in  a  perfectly  pure  environ- 
ment the  result  might  not  be  satisfying,  because  all 
action  must  be  balanced  by  reaction,  and  a  nature 
grows  as  much  by  what  it  rights  against  as  by  what  it 
accepts.  This  is  the  comfort  we  may  take  from  the 
certainty  that  even  the  best  guarded  child  will  surely 
have  many  things  in  his  experience  to  forget  —  to  un- 
learn. 

But  the  unlearning  is  a  waste  of  energy  that  should 
be  applied  to  other  purposes.  Fighting  errors  is  good 
muscular  exercise  —  after  we  recognize  them  as  er- 
rors. But  if  a  belief  gets  a  real  hold  upon  a  young 
mind,  and  other  ideas  grow  up,  founded  upon  that, 
scarcely  anything  is  more  difficult  than  to  replace  all 
this  material  of  thinking  by  another  and  contrary 
kind. 

It  has  not  yet  been  recognized  that  a  great  deal  of 


18 

the  early  training  of  the  child  mind  is  farcical  non- 
sense; a  narrowing  of  his  intelligence,  a  stupefying 
of  his  natural  humanity.  He  gets  the  way  of  "  hating 
this  "  and  of  "  loving  that,"  of  bending  down  to  arti- 
ficial rules  and  rulers,  and  of  hiding  his  honest  senti- 
ments for  fear  that  they  may  be  incorrect.  His  im- 
mediate and  near-by  associates  are  of  course,  his  uni- 
verse, and  their  opinions  form  his  own.  And  of  the 
stuff  poured  into  his  brain  in  the  very  earliest  years 
will  have  to  be  made  that  ultimate  belief  about  life 
which  will  sensibly  influence  his  conduct  to  the  end 
of  his  days.  Who,  for  instance,  can  ever  completely 
out-grow  certain  little  fancies  about  the  moon  and 
stars,  the  clouds  and  mountains  that  were  related  to 
him  when  he  was  just  beginning  to  ask  questions  about 
these  natural  mysteries  ?  It  would  be  a  wonderfully 
interesting  thing  to  trace  throughout  both  the  ignorant 
and  the  enlightened  parts  of  the  world  the  effect  of 
such  a  tale  as  the  almost  universal  myth  of  the  "  Pot 
of  gold  at  the  end  of  the  rainbow !  " 

That  is  not  in  itself  a  harmful  fancy,  but  it  merely 
goes  to  show  the  tenacity  of  an  idea  sown  on  the 
plastic  soil  of  infancy.  Given  then,  the  fact  that 
early  teaching  is  exceedingly  important,  in  what  prac- 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER  19 

tical  way  may  a  mother,  having  duties  to  herself,  to 
the  rest  of  her  family,  and  to  the  world  in  general,  eke 
out  her  limited  resources  and  arrange  for  her  child 
such  an  environment  as  may  minister  at  all  times  to 
his  best  interests  ? 

There  is  a  wealth  of  material  lying  all  about  us,  an- 
swering to  every  one  of  our  needs ;  but  we  are  usually 
too  conservative  and  timid  to  appropriate  it.  The 
conservatism  of  the  average  mother  is  remarkable. 
She  is  really  influenced  very  little  by  her  knowledge 
and  almost  entirely  guided  by  her  inherited  habits. 
That  astute  observer,  Theodore  Drieser,  asserts  that 
it  is  seldom  principle,  but  usually  habit  that  regulates 
all  our  minor  acts.  It  is  certain  that  a  woman  de- 
parts with  the  utmost  reluctance  from  the  beaten  path 
in  matters  relating  to  her  children,  because  she  has  to 
overcome  such  an  amount  of  hereditary  inertia  that 
the  effort  is  a  kind  of  moral  revolution. 

Yet  at  the  present  moment  women  believe  them- 
selves thoroughly  progressive.  They  have  mothers' 
clubs  in  immense  numbers,  read  radical  papers  on 
every  theme,  glow  with  enthusiasm  on  the  subject  of 
the  new  education  —  and  go  home  to  the  same  old 
grind  of  duties  unrelieved  by  any  of  those  new 


20        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION" 

methods  that  might  bring  joy  and  peace  to  a  fretted 
household. 

At  a  mothers'  meeting  which  recently  took  place  in 
a  lively  town,  one  bright  woman  rose  at  the  end  of 
some  suggestive  speech  and  asked  plaintively,  "  I 
should  like  to  know  whether,  after  we  have  performed 
our  motherly  duties  according  to  this  advice,  there  will 
be  any  scraps  of  time  left  over  for  anything  else  ? " 
And  no  one  could  answer  her.  How  little  women  be- 
lieve in  co-operation!  How  reluctant  they  are  to 
frankly  avow  a  need  and  seek  the  aid  required  from 
one  another!  It  takes  a  courageous  as  well  as  an 
original  woman  to  strike  out  in  a  new  path  and  try 
new  ways.  Any  womun  with  common  sense  and  firm 
will  can  do  her  sex  a  great  service  by  merely  carrying 
out  some  single  good  idea  that  occurs  to  her  about 
the  training  of  her  child.  A  single  innovation  may 
carry  light  afar  and  spread  around  from  a  neighbor- 
hood to  a  foreign  land.  And  how  much  she  will  ef- 
fect for  her  own  children !  The  most  inexorable  hard- 
ship of  childhood  is  the  inelasticity  of  home  training. 
School  teachers  constantly  introduce  changes  into  their 
methods  but  parents  obstinately  keep  to  their  old 
ways,  so  making  home  life  contrast  unfavorably  with 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER  21 

the  outer  world.  Yet  the  tone  of  a  home  should  be 
lively  and  refreshing.  But  it  cannot  be  so  unless  the 
mother  is  magnetic. 

It  is  favorable  to  any  change  a  mother  may  intro- 
duce that  children  eagerly  welcome  novelty.  Young 
creatures  suffer  so  much  from  monotony  that  even 
a  change  for  the  worse  has  its  compensations.  If 
they  are  to  be  bruised  they  prefer  a  new  spot.  But 
on  the  other  side,  it  is  better  to  build  our  plans  upon 
a  foundation  that  has  been  tested  and  rendered  fa- 
miliar, because  children  love  persons  and  places  they 
already  know,  and  are  apt  to  become  terrified  when 
confronted  intimately  with  circumstances  and  per- 
sons they  have  never  before  met. 

This  the  wise  mother  will  take  into  account. 
When  she  is  laying  plans  to  get  more  time  to  read  or 
to  go  out  with  her  husband,  without  neglecting  her 
little  tots,  she  will  not  hastily  turn  them  over  to  a 
strange  nurse,  nor  send  them  to  school  to  get  rid  of 
them.  Above  all,  if  she  has  a  particle  of  foresight, 
and  realizes  the  vital  harm  done  to  young  nerves  by 
too  early  contact  with  the  bustle  of  the  outer  world 
especially  in  great  cities,  she  will  not  take  her  young 
child  downtown  with  her  shopping,  or  to  noisy  shows, 


22         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

or  to  nocturnal  amusements  of  any  sort  whatsoever. 
The  sight  of  a  small  child  enduring  agony  at  a  moving 
picture  show  at  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  being  aroused 
from  stupor  to  go  into  the  keen  night  air  with  his 
nerves  in  a  state  of  frenzy,  is  enough  to  make  a  sane 
person  weep.  Happily,  the  spectacle  is  less  common 
than  it  used  to  be.  Our  grandparents  in  New  Eng- 
land were  required  by  law  to  attend  meeting,  and  no 
adult  might  remain  at  home  to  care  for  a  child  old 
enough  to  go  with  its  parents.  This  discreet  age  was 
fixed  at  so  tender  a  period  that  the  infants  in  arms 
were  not  exempt.  But  how  great  the  difference  be- 
tween those  somnorific  old  meeting  houses  and  our 
modern  bedlams  of  electric  motion  plays  or  terrifying 
business  streets !  No  law  now  requires  that  a  child 
shall  accompany  its  parents  anywhere.  He  may  be 
left  to  cry  alone  or  to  roam  the  streets  by  himself,  if 
it  is  so  decreed  by  his  autocrats. 

There  is  another  way.  Lacking  grandmother  or 
kind  aunt,  and  if  there  is  not  a  trained  attendant  with 
at  least  a  smattering  of  lore  of  the  nature  of  kinder- 
gartens, mothers  may  supplement  one  another;  may 
loan  out  their  time  and  energies  for  mutual  advantage, 
and  by  a  judicious  selection  among  themselves  ac- 


complish  something  like  a  miracle  for  their  children. 
Would  it  not  be  an  excellent  thing  if  our  child  could 
spend  a  portion  of  his  time  each  day  with  an  expert 
instructor  in  some  special  branch  of  knowledge,  or 
some  adept  in  an  art  or  piece  of  practical  lore  ?  It  is 
practical,  this  ideal  system.  I  have  seen  it  tried,  and 
with  success. 

In  a  certain  select  kindergarten  in  New  York  there 
were  two  small  pupils  who  formed  an  exception  to 
the  rest  of  the  class,  inasmuch  as  they  were  looked 
after  with  mare  than  ordinary  zeal.  Upon  one  side 
of  the  great  sunny  room  left  for  visitors  there  fre- 
quently appeared  the  mothers  of  these  two  little 
maidens,  and  their  motions  were  watched  unobtru- 
sively, silently,  with  loving,  intelligent  eyes.  Both 
mothers  were  gentlewomen,  and  the  able  teacher 
needed  no  suggestions.  But  their  interest  in  the  edu- 
cational method  in  process  was  so  active  that  they  were 
impelled  to  try  to  understand  it.  Consequently,  they 
were  enabled  to  help  the  little  ones  materially,  by 
their  companionship  at  home. 

These  two  mothers  were  strangers  to  each  other, 
and  of  all  places  in  the  world,  Gotham  is  the  hardest 
for  women  to  break  the  social  ice ;  but  their  common 


24         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

interest  in  childhood  drew  them  irresistibly  together, 
and  gradually  they  formed  an  acquaintance  that  was 
more  than  ordinarily  congenial.  Both  their  little 
girls,  being  only  children  in  each  instance,  were  de- 
lighted to  visit  at  each  other's  houses  and  found  recrea- 
tion in  occasionally  breathing  in  the  atmosphere  of  a 
home  different  from,  yet  not  opposing,  their  own. 
Presently  a  third  acquaintance  in  the  person  of  the 
earnest,  thovightful  stepmother  of  a  nice  little  daugh- 
ter, became  admitted  to  the  friendship  of  this  small 
circle,  and  the  three  homes  became  alternate  camp- 
ing grounds  for  the  youthful  coterie* 

Then  it  occurred  to  one  of  these  women  that  on 
the  afternoons  that  these  little  ones  romped  together 
it  was  not  necessary  for  three  adults  to  sit  idly  talk- 
ing, to  pass  the  time.  There  is  too  much  to  do  in 
the  world  nowadays  for  nine  adults  to  accompany  one 
small  child  to  the  circus,  as  happened  sometimes  in 
old-fashioned  rural  districts.  One  watcher  seemed  to 
this  more  resourceful  woman  sufficient.  The  others 
might  occupy  their  time  more  profitably.  So  she  pro- 
posed to  her  friends  to  form  a  mutual  benefit  guild. 
The  arrangement  was  that  the  children  should  spend 
alternate  afternoons  in  company,  and  the  mother  who 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER     25 

was  hostess  for  that  day  should  take  entire  charge  of 
the  three  little  girls,  leaving  the  other  two  mothers 
absolutely  free  to  pursue  their  own  plans  from 
luncheon  to  bedtime.  None  of  the  women  employed 
a  nurse.  They  were  all  three  devoted,  conscientious 
mothers  and  would  never  have  brought  their  minds 
to  a  state  of  contentment  with  any  arrangement  that 
was  not  best  for  their  children.  But  here  was  an 
opportunity  to  give  the  little  ones  pleasant  social  in- 
tercourse and  themselves  long  desired  leisure  to  spend 
in  intellectual  enjoyments.  So  they  eagerly  embraced 
the  chance.  The  little  ones,  already  friends,  were 
happy,  and  the  mothers  equally  pleased. 

Now  out  of  this  original  device  grew  something 
much  greater.  Most  discoveries  are  accidental,  and 
this  one  was  not  an  exception.  It  happened  that  all 
three  of  these  women  were  specially  gifted.  One 
was  a  fine  artist,  another  an  accomplished  musician, 
and  the  third  an  exquisite,  scientific  household  man- 
ager. When  their  children's  year  of  kindergarten 
training  was  accomplished  and  they  were  asking 
themselves  with  anxiety,  what  was  to  come  next,  in 
that  dreary  hiatus  between  kindergarten  and  school 
their  consultation  resulted  in  another  idea.  There 


26        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

are  in  some  advanced  schools  what  are  called  "  con- 
necting classes,"  undertaking  to  provide  for  children 
until  it  is  time  for  them  to  enter  into  routine  work. 
"  Suppose  we  do  better  than  this,"  suggested  one  of 
the  friends ;  "  suppose  we  become  mutual  helpers  in 
education  ? " 

It  was  an  idea  to  give  pause.  Not  one  of  them 
particularly  liked  formal  teaching,  and  two  were 
averse  to  entering  upon  such  a  responsibility  as 
the  suggestion  appeared  to  imply.  Yet  upon  weigh- 
ing all  the  advantages  against  the  slight  inconvenience 
of  putting  their  rusting  talents  to  active  use,  they  were 
impelled  to  try  the  plan.  It  was  not  called,  but  was 
actually,  in  miniature,  a  neighborhood  tutoring  school, 
and  of  the  rarest  character,  because  the  mercenary  ele- 
ment was  absent  and  the  instructors  were  actuated  by 
the  spirit  of  doing  exactly  as  they  were  done  by. 
The  arrangement  was  for  one  mother  to  take  charge 
of  the  three  little  girls  two  days  in  each  week,  and 
give  them  lessons  in  housekeeping.  With  the  gas 
range  and  grown-up  paraphernalia  it  was  doll  house- 
keeping, glorified.  What  meals  were  prepared,  what 
scientific  house-cleanings  for  the  doll's  family  accom- 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER  27 

plished,  what  lessons  learned  in  the  art  of  caring  for 
babies  and  of  what  to  do  in  emergencies !  And  all 
without  pedagogic  stiffness  or  enforced  work.  "  No 
fear  of  homes  dying  out  among  us  if  the  honest  pref- 
erences of  children  are  considered,"  observed  the  su- 
pervisor of  these  domestic  lessons.  "  The  baby  heart 
is  an  honest,  simple  heart  and  will  turn  readily 
to  the  homely  things  of  life  if  its  attention  is  secured 
once.  And  it  is  to  the  wholesome,  unspoiled  baby 
nature  that  we  must  direct  our  efforts  in  domestic 
education.  If  ever  lessons  in  household  science  can 
be  given  without  pain  and  with  bursts  of  glee  it  is 
with  a  doll's  house  for  a  background,  and  docile  tots 
for  learners,  to  whom  the  whole  matter  is  almost  play, 
but  who  work  at  it  with  the  zeal  that  children  throw 
into  everything  that  really  interests  them.  Do  you 
know  that  a  child  absolutely  likes  work,  if  it  is  con- 
vinced that  it  is  the  same  kind  of  work  that  grown 
people  are  doing  ?  That  is  the  secret ;  to  make  them 
participators  of  our  own  occupations.  And  the  way  to 
do  it  is  first,  to  enter  into  theirs." 

After  a  morning  so  spent,  the  afternoon  was  given 
to  outdoor  recreations,  sometimes  in  the  great  city 


28 

play-ground,  Central  Park,  oftener  after  a  trolley 
ride  that  brought  the  troupe  to  the  real  country,  where 
there  was  no  "  grass  to  keep  off." 

The  second  mother  had  undertaken  the  task  of 
teaching  her  three  charges  the  rudiments  of  music,  but 
she  made  her  lessons  short  if  important  and  her  play 
spells  correspondingly  longer.  The  vital  point  was 
that  she  conscientiously  imparted  during  her  brief 
half  hour  lesson  something  that  was  always  remem- 
bered by  the  children,  because  there  was  the  element 
of  eternal  truth  in  her  excellent  science.  They  were 
henceforth  fortified  against  shallow,  false  music,  and 
that  is  the  most  valuable  thing  about  the  divine  art 
that  can  be  learned  in  early  life. 

To  the  third  mother  had  fallen  the  duty  of  super- 
vising the  three  young  persons  in  clay  modeling  and 
drawing.  Of  the  first,  she  made  an  active  pleasure, 
providing  white  clay  on  broad  boards  in  the  big 
kitchen,  and  skilfully  turning  the  apparently  spon- 
taneous work  of  the  trio  to  good  account  in  molding 
fruits  and  every  other  conceivable  object  that  might 
be  imitated,  and  afterward,  making  crude  but  quite 
reasonable  drawings  of  these  self-constructed  models. 
She  learned  the  truth  of  what  she  had  suspected,  that 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER     29 

a  child  prefers  to  do  the  whole  thing,  and  carry  out 
in  its  completeness  every  idea  he  has  a  glimmering 
about,  rather  than  to  cooperate  with  a  superior  intel- 
ligence in  something  he  believes  his  own.  In  other 
words,  he  is  deeply  interested  when  he  supposes  him- 
self to  be  both  designer  and  workman.  An  apple 
molded  from  clay  and  then  copied  in  charcoal  is  a 
product  of  his  own;  it  belongs  to  him,  and  after  it 
is  all  done,  he  could  eat  it,  from  very  joy  of  owner- 
ship! 

The  arrangement  described  here  had  the  rare  ad- 
vantage of  securing  a  group  of  specialists  for  each 
child,  such  as  the  most  expensive  private  school  could 
not  excel,  and  this  without  any  expense  at  all.  Why 
should  it  not  be  adopted  by  other  mothers  of  small 
families  where  the  children  crave  companionship  and 
change  and  they  themselves  crave  leisure?  Leaving 
out  the  item  of  special  talent  for  art,  there  can  be 
a  very  useful  exchange  made  of  other  aptitudes 
among  women.  Every  woman  can  do  some  little 
thing  well.  Let  her  teach  her  friend's  child  that 
thing  in  exchange  for  another  sort  of  guardianship. 
\  Let  us  have  less  formality  and  more  humanity  among 
us! 


30        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

There  are  two  ways  of  rearing  children  —  the  one, 
to  leave  them  in  infancy  to  nurses,  and  later  on,  to 
teachers:  the  other,  to  supervise  every  step  of  their 
development  from  birth  to  maturity.  For  the  mother 
who  elects  to  do  her  duty  there  seems  nothing  possi- 
ble but  unremitting  attention  to  maternal  cares  and 
consequent  neglect  of  all  other  modes  of  usefulness. 
Under  present  conditions.  But  why  in  the  world 
should  any  sort  of  absurd  conditions  hold,  when  an 
improvement  is  within  our  reach?  Women  are  no- 
toriously timid  about  introducing  improvements  into 
their  way  of  living,  a  fact  that  entitles  them  to  be 
called  the  "  invariable  element  "  in  nature,  while  men 
are  the  originating  element,  consequently,  variable. 
There  was  a  time  when  men  distrusted  any  departure 
from  conventionality  in  the  women  of  their  house- 
holds, and  frowned  down  new  ideas.  But  they  are 
no  longer  doing  it.  They  may  be  surprised  when  wife 
and  mother  devises  some  new  and  good  thing,  but  they 
are  delighted  also.  Perhaps  they  suspect  that  the 
germ  of  the  bit  of  originality  was  in  some  occult  way, 
filched  from  their  own  brains  while  they  slept,  and 
congratulate  themselves  in  their  sly  power !  Be  that 
as  it  may,  we  have  fallen  into  a  bad  habit  of  apathy 


HOW  MOTHERS  HELP  EACH  OTHER  31 

in  this  matter  of  child-training  versus  self-develop- 
ment, and  need  to  look  over  the  ground  and  see  what 
we  can  do  towards  reform.  The  woman  who  neglects 
her  home  while  she  teaches  the  world  how  to  think, 
legislate  and  act  is  not  admirable  in  any  aspect. 
"  Mother  is  so  busy  in  her  educational  work  now  that 
she  is  scarcely  ever  at  home,"  announced  a  young  high- 
school  girl  with  innocent  pride.  The  listener  could 
only  appreciate  the  humor  of  it  without  betraying 
sympathy. 

Every  experiment  that  helps  to  solve  this  problem 
of  how  to  do  justice  to  the  rising  generation  without 
doing  injustice  to  the  retiring  one,  is  of  value.  If 
"  Youth  will  be  served  "  then  age  must  not  be  en- 
slaved. The  only  way  is  to  make  of  duty  a  joy  and 
a  release.  Co-operation  between  parents  is  a  key  to 
the  situation,  and  when  the  froth  of  talk  about  im- 
possible methods  of  "  child-training  "  niters  down  to 
practical  meaning,  it  must  occur  to  every  sensible 
mother  that  to  take  advantage  of  the  fact  that  many 
people  want  the  same  thing  that  she  wants  should  be 
an  inspiration  to  the  right  end. 

Suppose  that  among  a  group  of  friends  in  a  com- 
munity there  are  three  or  four  mothers  with  similar 


32         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ideals  and  almost  equal  capacities,  inexperienced  per- 
haps, in  formal  teaching,  but  possessing  average  edu- 
cation and  therefore,  ability  to  make  time  passed  in 
their  society  useful  and  agreeable  to  the  young.  Well, 
instead  of  these  women  each  devoting  herself  singly 
to  the  care  of  her  separate  offspring,  and  wearing 
nerve  and  spirit  to  atoms  by  the  drudgery  of  an  un- 
varying routine,  it  would  be  an  immense  relief  and 
refreshment  to  themselves  and  their  children,  if  they 
should  exchange  motherhood  either  regularly  or  at 
intervals.  Leaving  out  the  question  of  specific  in- 
struction, the  society  of  a  refined  and  educated  mother 
is  far  more  beneficial  for  the  young  child  than  that 
of  either  nurse  or  ordinary  person.  The  feeling  that 
she  is  doing  a  co-operative  service,  that  as  she  is  serv- 
ing so  she  will  be  served,  must  be  a  stimulant  to  pro- 
duce good  results.  Happy  that  child  who  has  the 
advantage  of  such  a  community  league !  And  happy 
must  be  that  mother  who  realizes  that  in  effecting  a 
boon  for  herself  she  has  also  secured  a  wholesome 
and  agreeable  diversion  for  the  home-bred  child.  He 
is  safe-guarded  and  ministered  to  as  he  could  not  be 
in  any  other  environment  than  a  good  home. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  BIRTH  OF  FACTTLTY 

"  Our  start  must  be  taken  from  a  careful  training  of  the 
senses  in  perception." — LADD. 

BACK  of  all  our  education  stand  our  five 
senses.  Upon  them  we  depend  for  acquaint- 
ance with  our  environment,  for  the  develop- 
ment of  our  intellect,  and  for  the  tone  of  our  char- 
acter. It  is  of  the  first  importance  that  at  his  entrance 
into  the  world  a  child  should  be  shielded  from  all 
shocks  that  might  work  injury  to  his  delicate  organs. 
It  will  make  an  enormous  difference  to  him  all 
through  life  if  a  single  sense  organ  becomes  injured ; 
if  it  is  even  slightly  incapacitated,  so  that  the  in- 
formation he  is  meant  to  receive  through  that  one 
source  will  not  be  received.  Every  one  realizes,  when 
the  matter  is  distinctly  put  to  them,  that  a  person 
whose  hearing,  sight  or  sense  of  smell  is  less  powerful 

than  it  normally  should  be,  is  handicapped.     He  must 

33 


34        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

work  harder  than  a  completely  normal  individual 
does,  to  get  the  same  results,  and  he  may  never  ac- 
complish what  he  might  under  better  conditions. 
Certainly,  in  order  to  make  up  a  deficiency  in  one 
sense,  his  other  senses  will  be  required  to  do  over- 
work, and  are,  consequently,  likely  to  give  out  sooner 
than  they  should  do.  But  unhappily,  as  our  senses 
are  not  imperative  in  their  demands  upon  public 
attention,  like  our  features  and  legs,  they  are  less 
likely  to  be  considered  important,  so  long  as  they  are 
unobtrusive. 

The  child  who  is  born  deformed  is  from  the  first 
instant,  comprehended  and  aided  by  science. 
Crooked  noses  are  straightened,  twisted  limbs  care- 
fully attended  to.  Such  defects  stand  out  at  once, 
and  receive  the  treatment  they  demand.  But  a  de- 
fective organ  is  not  able  to  make  an  immediate  ap- 
peal to  sympathy.  In  the  first  place,  the  period  when 
each  sense  normally  comes  to  its  powers  varies  with 
children.  There  is  a  standard,  but  comparatively 
few  persons  know  or,  at  least,  recollect  it.  It  is,  how- 
ever, very  important  that  a  mother  keep  in  mind 
several  facts  that  bear  upon  the  permanent  welfare 
of  her  child  in  this  connection. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  35 

The  first  sense  to  develop  is  that  of  taste.  A  baby 
distinguishes  generally,  when  a  few  hours  old,  between 
sweet  and  sour,  and  prefers  the  former.  As  the 
taking  of  nourishment  is  his  first  need,  it  is  quite 
natural  that  his  earliest  intelligent  act  should  be  to 
choose  the  sort  of  nourishment  in  accord  with  his 
preference!  But  occasionally,  the  child  does  not 
make  such  a  distinction  until  he  has  been  in  this 
world  for  several  days.  His  ability  to  do  so  should 
not  be  unduly  delayed,  and  a  mother  ought  to  note 
whether  the  tiny  newcomer  is  properly  equipped  with 
this  gustatory  sense,  by  offering  him  at  least  on  the 
second  day,  both  a  sweetened  and  a  bitter  suck  at 
something,  that  his  subsequent  remarks  upon  the 
matter  may  be  observed.  They  will  be,  of  course, 
merely  facial  expressions ! 

The  second  sense  in  order  of  development  is  that 
of  smell.  To  learn  whether  this  sense  organ  is  nor- 
mal the  baby  may  be  approached  by  his  nurse  with  a 
bottle  of  strong  smelling  salts.  The  wrinkling  of  his 
nose,  or  absolute  indifference,  is  significant  of  his 
power  to  distinguish  odors.  But  possibly,  and  not 
from  any  fault  of  his  organs,  he  may  confuse  smell 
with  taste,  and  try  to  suck  the  thing  held  to  his  nose. 


36         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Babies  have  been  known  to  suck  at  flowers,  liking 
their  fragrance.  Several  experiments,  made  at  in- 
tervals, can  establish  the  point  beyond  dispute. 

The  third  sense,  the  cutaneous,  or  sense  of  touch, 
comes  more  slowly.  Some  children  suffer  immedi- 
ately from  an  excess  of  cold  or  heat,  but  very  few 
indeed,  are  able  to  show  their  discomfort,  so  it  is 
generally  assumed  that  unless  the  appeal  made  is 
strong,  they  are  indifferent  to  changes  of  tempera- 
ture at  first.  But  this  mental  indifference  must  not 
make  us  oblivious  to  the  fact  that  their  physical  wel- 
fare is  greatly  affected  by  climatic  changes.  Warmth 
is  their  native  element,  and  they  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  be  cold,  under  any  circumstances.  This  is, 
accurately  speaking,  the  cutaneous  sense,  not  touch. 

Preyer,  whose  observations  upon  this  subject  are  en- 
titled to  great  respect,  asserts  that  every  child  is  born 
completely  deaf.  Yet  I  have  known  at  least  two  ex- 
ceptions. Usually,  though,  his  remark  holds  true. 
Sometimes  hearing  does  not  develop  until  several  days 
elapse;  but  in  the  case  of  a  child  of  intelligent  and 
mentally  active  parents,  and  particularly,  when  the 
parents  are  musically  inclined,  it  is  not  rare  for  hear- 
ing to  show  itself  as  soon  as  the  second  day.  For- 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  37 

tunately,  the  new-born  infant  hears  with  difficulty 
at  first ;  otherwise,  he  would  be  dreadfully  disturbed 
by  the  noisy  world  into  which  he  has  entered.  A 
careful  mother  will  try  to  have  the  young  baby  kept 
as  quiet  as  possible;  safe-guarded  from  abrupt,  loud 
voices  and  from  all  jarring  sounds.  His  nerves  will 
benefit  much  by  this  care. 

Children,  like  kittens,  are  born  without  capacity 
to  see  at  all.  The  pretty,  open  eyes  are  sightless. 
But  after  a  few  days  they  distinguish  between  light 
and  darkness,  then,  by  degrees,  between  large  objects. 
But  this  power  of  vision  varies  even  more  than  it 
does  in  the  other  senses.  Sensibility  to  strong  light  is 
certainly  present  when  the  sight  is  normal.  The 
baby  is  unpleasantly  affected  by  powerful  illumina- 
tion and  ought  to  be  guarded  from  a  glare,  either  of 
sunshine  or  artificial  light.  The  dawn  of  life  has  its 
natural  accompaniment  of  soft  and  gentle  glow  of 
light, 

!Now  it  is  evident  that  the  children  of  parents  who 
are  fortunately  so  situated  that  they  are  able  to  give 
their  children  from  the  very  first,  all  the  care  and  at- 
tention, all  the  scientific  training  that  may  be  secured 
by  consultation  with  excellent  physicians  and  that 


38        THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

conduces  so  greatly  to  their  welfare,  start  them  off  in 
life  with  infinitely  better  chances  than  can  parents 
who  are  able  to  do  much  less.  Infinite  are  the  sense 
maladies  of  the  children  of  the  poor !  But  by  special 
care  in  the  early  days  of  a  child's  life  a  mother  may 
confer  upon  him  the  rare  boon  of  healthy  sense 
organs,  unless  there  is  present  from  the  beginning  a 
defect  or  weakness ;  and  in  that  case  timely  attention 
may  remedy  the  trouble. 

With  the  physical  organs  in  good  working  order, 
the  next  thing  is  the  training  of  the  sense  perceptions. 
Of  what  use  is  a  superior  capacity  which  is  permitted 
to  lie  dormant,  until  chance  awakens  it?  The  dif- 
ference between  the  ill-cared  for  child  and  the  shielded 
one  is  quickly  manifest  in  the  degree  of  attention  that 
is  given  to  his  sensations,  those  mental  accompani- 
ments of  his  perceptive  organs  that  he  expresses  in  the 
language  of  cries  or  cooes  of  pleasure.  Out  of  sensa- 
tions comes  all  our  moral  life.  It  is  a  tremendous 
thought.  Hunger  unappeased  will  bring  about  crime 
in  the  adult,  in  the  child,  revolt  against  conditions  to 
the  extent  of  embittered  disposition  and  permanent  ill' 
temper.  Fear,  the  next  sensation  to  develop,  too  early 
or  too  profoundly  aroused,  may  make  a  coward  or 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  39 

a  sneak  of  a  timid  nature.  Rightly  managed  it  is  a 
force  in  education  that  has  a  distinct  value.  But  it  is 
more  abused  than  any  other  sensation  of  childhood. 

Some  renowned  authors  have  written  feelingly  of 
"  the  bugaboos  of  childhood  " ;  those  phantoms  of  the 
imagination  that  were  aroused  by  tales  of  ignorant 
nurses  or  vicious  comrades,  or  even,  unhappily,  by 
thoughtless  parents,  too  deficient  in  imagination  them- 
selves to  apprehend  the  results  of  terror  upon  more 
sensitive  natures.  As  we  understand  the  strength  of 
this  sensation,  the  earliest  to  awaken,  the  last  to  die 
in  a  human  being,  we  must  be  moved  to  treat  it  with 
extreme  caution,  and  shield  our  child  from  any  frights 
that  might  seriously  interfere  with  his  mental  de- 
velopment. A  severe  terror  in  infancy  has  been 
known  to  bring  on  convulsions,  lasting  for  years. 
Many  unaccountable  mental  deficiencies  might  be 
traced  to  such  a  source,  many  eccentricities  explained 
by  the  same  experience.  We  cannot  estimate  the 
harm  which  may  arise  from  one  fit  of  terror,  or  even 
from  one  abnormal  idea  of  fear  that  gets  root  in  the 
nature  of  a  young  child. 

How  profoundly  is  the  child  at  the  mercy  of  his 
guardians !    There  is,  indeed,  one  salutary  check  upon 


40        THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

their  powers.  The  child  belongs  not  only  to  his  par- 
ents but  to  his  species,  his  race,  his  entire  family. 
Heredity  has  molded  him.  The  efforts  of  kindly 
or  careless  hands  can  beautify  or  mar,  but  cannot 
change  his  form.  We  should  not  over-estimate  the 
effects  of  education.  Every  family,  every  institution, 
can  show  children  subjected  to  the  same  kind  of  train- 
ing who  have  grown  into  beings  as  utterly  dissimilar 
as  if  they  were  the  products  of  different  nurtures. 
When  we  begin  to  divine  the  true  nature  of  the  little 
being  who  seems  so  receptive  we  can  aid  him  in  the 
development  of  that  special  character  which  is  to  mark 
him  out  as  a  separate  atom  from  the  great  troupe  of 
his  generation.  And  to  watch  for  indications  of  this 
individuality  and  seize  upon  them  as  foundations  of 
our  best  work  is  something  we  must  constantly  bear 
in  mind. 

But  happily  for  us  education  is  a  synthetic  process. 
The  general  should,  in  the  true  order,  come  before 
the  particular.  Science  has  done  so  much  for  us  in 
the  way  of  giving  us  rules,  that  we  need  only  to  apply 
them.  It  would  be  unfortunate  indeed,  if  each  parent 
were  obliged  to  repeat  personally,  all  the  experiments 
that  scientists  have  practised  upon  their  offspring  for 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  41 

the  benefit  of  the  world !  When  Mr.  Preyer  hurried 
his  five-m mutes-old  son  to  the  window  to  note  the 
effect  of  light  upon  him,  when  Malebrance  tried  the 
effects  of  heat  and  cold  upon  a  tiny  stranger  and  Dar- 
win that  of  sounds,  the  good  result  followed  of  giving 
the  world  some  reliable  facts  about  infant  develop- 
ment upon  which  may  be  founded  a  practical  psy- 
chology. Those  infant  pioneers  suffered  in  a  good 
cause.  But  now  we  may  profit  by  all  these  experi- 
ments, without  subjecting  our  own  little  ones  to  end- 
less trials. 

One  thing  that  is  generally  admitted  is  that  each 
child  passes  swiftly  through  the  general  phases  of 
racial  development;  that  he  is  at  first  more  animal 
than  human,  later  on,  chiefly  savage,  and  gradually 
takes  on  the  nature  of  his  species  and  his  family. 
But  one  thing  must  be  noted;  all  the  work  done  by 
man  for  his  own  mental  and  moral  benefit  has  borne 
results.  The  infant  of  the  twentieth  century,  coming 
of  an  average  good  family,  is  not  so  much  a  little  sav- 
age as  the  offspring  of  the  gipsy  or  Esquimo.  Tradi- 
tions of  gentleness  and  high  aspirations  have  passed 
into  his  blood.  He  is  "  the  heir  of  the  ages  "  and 
begins  where  his  predecessors  have  left  off.  And  the 


42        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

child  of  a  modern  cultured  family  is  not  either  on  ex- 
actly the  same  level  as  the  hereditary  tramp  or  the 
day  laborer.  He  has  an  advantage  over  them.  Our 
little  one  has  gained  through  the  culture  of  his  pa- 
rents and  grandparents  a  predisposition  toward  cer- 
tain pursuits  and  acts  which  enables  him  to  leap  at  a 
bound  over  experiences  that  less  advanced  natures 
must  slowly  fight  their  way  through.  But  an  over- 
worked field  becomes  barren.  And  a  family  that  has 
persisted  for  generations  in  one  sort  of  work  uses  up, 
finally,  all  the  energy  that  is  in  store  of  the  kind 
needed  for  that  kind  of  work ;  then  degeneration  sets 
in.  Perhaps  this  is  why  pursuits  that  demand  hard 
brain  labor,  like  music,  literature  and  science,  are 
seldom  adopted  by  many  successive  generations,  but 
are  avoided  for  a  time,  and  then  taken  up  again. 

The  child  of  good  family  will  naturally  be  possessed 
of  finer  sense  perceptions  than  those  of  ignorant  par- 
entage. Something  more  is  contained  in  this  expres- 
sion than  the  mere  ordinary  use  of  the  senses.  The 
woodsman,  constantly  on  the  alert  for  sounds,  proba- 
bly passes  to  his  offspring  a  keenness  of  hearing  that 
is  of  the  greatest  advantage  to  him  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life.  But  if  he  turned  out  of  his  way  to 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  43 

enter  upon  the  study  of  music,  he  would  not  find  that 
his  keen  hearing  gave  him  any  better  apprehension 
of  harmony.  The  feeling  for  melody  is  a  distinct 
thing;  a  higher  development  of  the  sense  perception. 
It  is  the  natural  heritage  of  the  musician's  child,  sur- 
rounded from  the  first  by  an  atmosphere  of  music. 
To  him  possessed  only  of  the  outer  sense  organ,  with- 
out the  inner  accompaniment  of  sensibility,  there  can 
be  no  understanding  of  delicate  shades  of  meaning. 
Sensibility,  then,  is  one  of  the  attributes  of  faculty. 
It  should  not  be  confused  with  abnormal  sensitiveness, 
which  comes  from  diseased  nerves.  It  is,  in  other 
words,  the  power  to  discriminate  readily,  to  detect 
differences. 

This  power  should  be  assiduously  cultivated  in  the 
small  child.  Of  course  a  very  nice  judgment  is  neces- 
sary in  giving  to  the  awakening  intelligence  of  a  mere 
baby  just  sufficient  stuff  to  occupy  his  healthy  desire 
for  activity,  and  not  enough  to  weary  his  feeble  brain. 
He  must  be  watched,  and  the  instant  he  shows  signs 
of  fatigue,  must  rest.  Perhaps  it  is  best  that  no 
actual  effort  be  made  to  arouse  his  attention  until  he 
shows  an  interest  in  his  surroundings.  Children  dif- 
fer materially  in  this  respect  Some  infants  of  three 


44        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

months  are  restless  without  a  kind  of  mental  occupa- 
tion from  time  to  time.     A  wandering  gaze  about 
their  rooms,  a  faint  endeavor  to  lay  hold  of  some 
object  near  them,  a  wish  to  be  amused  indicates  that 
advanced  state  of  impatience  which  characterizes  the 
offspring  of  very  active  parents,  in  this  progressive 
age.     Whether  this  sign  of  interest  in  the  outside 
world  comes  at  three  months,  at  six,  or  later,  let  the 
parent  beware  of  entering  upon  silly  or  exciting  pas- 
times to  quiet  the  child.     If  his  mind  is  awakening, 
then  let  him  have  something  to  satisfy  his  mind ;  not 
be  jerked  about  on  a  physical  pivot.     Nurses  imagine 
that  a  restless  infant  must  be  moved  about ;  must  have 
his  body  wearied  that  his  nerves  may  be  quieted. 
Try,  instead,  hanging  three  bright  downy  balls  over 
the  baby's  crib;  one  yellow,  one  red  and  the  other 
blue.     Let  them  dangle  there  for  some  little  time. 
Then,  name  them  to  him.     Touch  first  one,  then  the 
others,  as  they  are  named.     Presently,  get  the  baby 
to  pick  them  out  himself.     It  may  take  weeks  before 
he  can  do  it.     If  it  should  take  three  months,  do  not 
be  discouraged.     Swing  the  balls  softly  about  so  that 
he  may  get  an  idea  of  motion  without  noise.     It  is  a 
great  advantage  in  education  to  separate  impressions, 


45 

making  them  single  instead  of  complex.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  most  babies  get  an  untrue  im- 
pression about  noise,  associating  it  with  rapid  move- 
ment, so  that  they  become  frightened  sometimes  from 
sounds  that  they  suppose  capable  of  enveloping  them 
bodily. 

The  first  year  of  a  baby's  life  must  be  given  over 
chiefly  to  his  physical  functions ;  yet,  his  mental  train- 
ing cannot  be  left  altogether  out  of  the  question. 
Without  any  urging,  he  will  usually  show  signs  of 
wanting  something  beside  "  bread,  cheese  and  kisses  " ; 
something  for  his  mind  to  wrestle  with.  At  this 
early  period,  and  for  a  long  time  to  come,  his  train- 
ing must  be  entirely  through  associations.  Let  cer- 
tain acts  that  are  pleasant  to  him,  such  as  giving  him 
nourishment,  be  associated  with  certain  other  states 
that  should  be  emotionally  agreeable.  It  has  seldom 
been  thought  of,  but  is  an  excellent  thing  to  do,  to 
have  a  music  box  in  the  nursery  to  play  soothing 
melodies,  and  set  it  in  motion  about  meal  time.  If 
you  want  your  baby  to  develop  a  taste  for  music,  then 
try  this! 

One  of  the  first  things  to  find  out  is  whether  your 
child  has  begun  to  seek  for  the  whys  and  wherefores 


46        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

of  happenings.  When  he  throws  his  bottle  on  the 
floor  and  looks  with  interest  at  the  broken  glass  and 
spilled  milk,  do  not  accuse  him  of  naughtiness;  at 
least,  unless  he  shows  signs  of  temper.  If  he  has 
merely  a  casual  interest  in  the  occurrence,  as  any 
philosopher  would  have  in  an  experiment,  can  you 
not  afford  a  few  broken  bottles  to  satisfy  his  mind  ? 
But  when  he  discovers  that  his  dinner  has  gone  along 
with  the  bottle,  it  may  be  well  to  explain  to  him  that 
he  will  have  to  wait  awhile  until  another  bottle  can 
be  found.  If  simple  words  are  employed,  accom- 
panied by  appropriate  gestures,  a  very  young  baby  can 
understand  many  events  that  relate  to  his  comfort. 

Making  a  tinkling  noise  with  a  spoon  against  his 
plate  is  one  of  the  early  pastimes  of  the  baby  who 
begins  to  sit  up  in  his  high  chair.  If  there  is  some 
one  at  hand  to  explain  something  about  these  things 
to  him,  saying  and  showing  by  example,  how  such 
sounds  are  produced,  he  will  quickly  apprehend  some 
very  significant  facts.  The  best  boon  of  infancy  is 
an  observant  mother,  ready  to  note,  listen,  and  aid 
her  small  child  in  all  the  experimentings  he  makes 
with  his  limited  world  material. 

One  of  the  mistakes  made  is  careless  establishment 


THE  BIRTH  OF  FACULTY  47 

of  associations.  At  first,  only  things  that  have  un- 
varying relations  with  each  other,  such  as  a  watch 
with  its  ticking  sound,  a  ball  with  its  tendency  to 
whirl,  a  bell  with  its  noisy  clapper,  and  other  cer- 
tainties in  circumstances,  should  be  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  child.  I  should  rather  say,  that 
nothing  at  all  must  be  brought  to  his  attention;  let 
him  attend  to  what  pleases  him ;  then  be  ready  to  show 
him  the  inner  meaning  of  what  he  has  fastened  upon. 
A  mother's  voice  is  naturally  pleasant  to  the  baby. 
He  will  listen  to  it  and  attend  to  it,  especially  if  she 
takes  pains  to  modulate  it  agreeably,  and  in  this 
preference  of  the  child  resides  a  meaning  that  she 
should  not  neglect  Tone  color,  differences  of  pitch, 
and  qualities  in  voice,  might  be  made  one  of  the 
earliest  modes  of  mental  and  moral  training  of  in- 
fancy, if  parents  were  careful  and  intelligent  in  the 
use  of  this  power.  Long  before  words  are  compre- 
hended tones  interest  the  mind  of  the  child.  The  par- 
ent who  knows  how  to  employ  what  is  called  the  "  di- 
dactic "  tone,  or  that  of  mild  authority,  will  have  little 
trouble  about  making  his  reasonable  commands  obeyed. 
The  mother  with  the  sympathetic  cadence  developed 
in  her  voice  may  win  her  little  one's  heart  confidences 


48        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

without  any  effort.  While  she  who  is  gifted  with  the 
sprightly,  joyous  quality  has  the  natural  superiority 
of  the  leader,  and  has  only  to  choose  the  path  she  wills 
to  pursue  to  be  followed  blindly  or  at  least,  happily, 
which  is  better. 

A  droning  voice  is  sometimes  restful  but  oftener 
irritating  to  an  intelligent  child.  The  voice  full 
of  inflections  helps  him  to  understand  language. 
Animals  talk  by  inflections;  the  small  child  tends  to 
use  them  continually.  This  is  why  his  little  voice 
constantly  runs  up  to  sky-high  pitches.  Let  a  mother 
be  wise  to  this  fact,  and  rather  consider  a  high  pitch 
a  sign  of  nervous  energy  than  of  nervous  irritability. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK: 

"To  elicit  interested  attention  in  the  right  objects  and 
actions  is  the  principal  problem  in  the  culture  of  infantile 
life."—  LADD. 

IN"  regard  to  the  training  of  children  we  are  not 
so  much  in  need  of  new  knowledge  as  of  the 
disposition  to  apply  what  we  already  know. 
For  even  the  ordinary  old  nurse,  who  has  cared  for 
many  little  ones  in  her  day,  will  have  learned  facts 
that  inevitably  lead  her  to  the  right  conclusions. 
Take  the  instance  of  her  laying  stress  upon  the  date 
her  little  charge  begins  "  to  take  notice."  Greatly 
as  this  period  differs  among  infants,  according  as 
their  senses  are  more  or  less  developed  and  their 
muscular  systems  strong  or  weak,  it  is  a  landmark 
in  their  lives.  From  the  instant  they  begin  to  recog- 
nize the  objects  that  surround  them  they  become 

individuals.     For  capacity  to  "  take  notice  "  is  the 

49 


50        THE  MOTHER  IN.  EDUCATION 

first  sign  of  mental  power.  It  is  inherent  and  where 
it  is  altogether  lacking  we  may  be  sure  that  there 
is  some  organic  defect  calling  for  skilful  remedial 
medical  treatment. 

As  noted  in  the  last  chapter,  one  of  the  first  things 
to  attract  the  child's  notice  is  usually  his  mother's 
voice,  especially  as  he  associates  it  with  being  taken 
up  and  fed.  Then  musical  sounds  begin  to  affect 
him.  Let  all  efforts  to  please  him  in  this  matter  be 
of  very  short  duration.  It  may  be  hard  for  the  baby 
to  check  an  inhibition  toward  fixity  of  attention  if  it 
is  too  vivid.  That  will  end  in  emotional  excitement. 
Every  one  knows  that  a  child  whose  attention  has 
been  overstrained  becomes  fretful. 

It  is  a  singularly  stupid  mistake  to  begin  the  educa- 
tion of  the  child  by  a  series  of  negations.  The  de- 
terring force  constantly  applied  will  dull  the  bright- 
est wits.  Instead,  the  beginning  should  be  positive. 
The  little  one  of  a  year  old  seeks  some  active  way  of 
putting  his  fresh  knowledge  about  an  associated  pair 
of  acts  in  operation;  let  him  have  his  chance.  He" 
finds  that  by  pulling  on  a  certain  knob  he  can  open  a 
drawer.  How  absurd  it  is  to  immediately  make  of 
that  act  a  means  of  moral  training  by  saying,  "  No, 


THKOUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK  51 

no,  baby  mustn't  do  that !  "  Or  he  wants  to  tear  up 
paper  and  scatter  it  on  the  floor.  There  is  no  harm 
in  it.  But  after  a  sufficient  amount  of  paper  has  been 
scattered  to  satisfy  him  he  may  be  gently  taught  to 
pick  it  all  up.  That  is  relating  construction  with  the 
natural  propensity  of  destruction  and  teaching  a 
valuable  lesson. 

Sometimes  we  forget  that  ideas  of  conduct  are  not 
inherent;  that  there  is  no  good  or  bad  in  the  small 
child's  vocabulary,  and  that  these  words  mean  no  more 
to  him  than  yellow  or  blue.  If  only  we  could  divine 
the  workings  of  infant  intellects  more  accurately,  we 
should  possibly  hear  some  tiny  tot  saying  to  itself  — 
'  What  do  these  grown  folks  mean  by  not  letting  me 
learn  things  the  way  I  can  learn  them  ?  "  One  day 
a  mite  of  two  years,  perched  on  her  father's  knee, 
reached  over  to  handle  an  object  on  his  desk,  which 
he  detached  gently  from  her  hand,  saying,  "  That  is 
one  of  the  things  Dot  must  not  touch."  Picking  up 
something  else,  she  observed  calmly,  "  That's  two  of 
them."  She  had  not  begun  to  apprehend  any  moral 
relation  between  acts  and  wants.  And  her  parent 
was  wise  enough  not  to  enforce  it  at  the  time. 

The  best  means  of  arousing  interest  in  an  occupa- 


52        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

tion  is  just  to  suggest  something  to  be  done,  repeat- 
ing the  same  suggestion  at  intervals,  until  in  the  track- 
less waste  of  the  infant's  brain  a  channel  is  worn 
along  which  impressions  may  easily  proceed.  Gradu- 
ally and  cautiously  we  may  hold  the  child's  attention 
for  longer  and  longer  periods,  observing  the  effect 
upon  him  and  gently  encouraging  him  in  those  efforts 
toward  self-control  which  must  be  very  often  renewed 
before  he  attains  the  power  to  concentrate  his  mind 
upon  whatever  he  undertakes. 

This,  which  is  the  greatest  of  intellectual  feats,  is 
the  basis  of  all  his  future  education  and  development. 
To  be  able  to  attend  with  all  one's  mind  to  the  thing 
that  is  present,  to  put  aside  other  and  contradictory 
emotions  or  ideas  and  concentrate  entirely  on  a  single 
one  is  an  achievement  for  an  adult.  How  much 
greater  an  achievement  for  a  little  child!  His  act 
of  attention  means  that  he  has  selected,  out  of  the 
different  things  that  engage  his  wandering  senses, 
something  whose  claim  is  stronger  than  those  of  other 
matters.  But  he  is  incapable  of  making  any  such 
selection.  Chance,  or  suggestion  from  outside  de- 
cide for  him.  But  if  the  suggestion  is  feeble  it  holds 
him  for  a  very  short  time;  then  his  mind  wanders 


THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK  53 

again.     How  are  we  to  aid  him  to  fix  his  atten- 
tion? 

The  element  of  surprise  is  of  the  greatest  value. 
A  small  shock,  not  sharp  enough  to  be  uncomfortable, 
but  distinct  enough  to  cause  an  immediate  separation 
from  more  passive  impressions,  arouses  the  child's 
mind  to  activity  in  the  direction  desired.  Here  we 
see  the  truth  of  the  new  view  of  education  when  it 
declares  that  "  interest  is  the  life  of  teaching."  Un- 
less an  interest  can  be  created  there  is  no  real  at- 
tention, but  merely  its  deceitful  counterfeit.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  talk  at  this  moment  about  the  neces- 
sity of  "  a  thrill "  in  stories  to  make  them  interest- 
ing to  adults.  We  must  have  "  shockers  "  even  if 
they  are  also  masterpieces.  Indeed,  nothing  is  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  masterpiece  now  that  has  not  in  it  this 
"  thrill."  Carrying  out  the  hint  we  may  say  that 
a  child  instinctively  demands  "  the  thrill "  in  his 
story.  He  too,  wants  to  be  made  to  wonder,  to  laugh 
and  to  weep.  Why  not  ?  The  world  is  a  vast  won- 
der-house to  the  new-comer  and  all  full  of  marvels. 
May  he  not  have  the  pleasure  of  dwelling  upon  their 
singular  features  for  a  space,  before  being  made  to 
linger  wearisomely  on  the  less  interesting  ones  ? 


54        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Now,  what  is  most  likely  to  strike  tlie  little  child 
as  an  unique,  startling  fancy  ?  He  has  no  conception 
of  the  grotesque  yet,  or  of  the  awful,  excepting  as 
he  is  able  to  compare  a  new  thing  with  his  few  im- 
pressions of  the  normal.  For  instance,  heing  habitu- 
ated to  seeing  his  mother's  face  in  certain  relations 
with  her  dress  he  is  amused  upon  her  assuming  an 
absurd  head-dress,  like  a  paper  cap.  His  father  with 
a  toy  balanced  on  his  dignified  head  is  a  comical 
sight.  He  clamors  for  repetitions  of  such  absurdities. 
It  is  because  the  contrast  with  his  ordinary  experi- 
ences is  very  marked  that  his  entertainment  is  made 
out  of  it.  If  his  mother  had  always  worn  a  paper 
cap  or  his  father  a  toy  horse  on  his  hair,  do  you 
suppose  master  Charles,  at  three,  would  find  such 
an  exhibition  funny?  Again,  having  had  a  few 
years'  experience  of  quiet  country  life,  we  will  say, 
and  being  suddenly  changed  to  the  city,  the  contrast 
strikes  him  with  astonishment,  and  in  every  new 
aspect  of  familiar  objects  he  sees  fresh  reason  for 
wonder.  It  is  the  start  given  to  his  perceptive  facul- 
ties that  sets  them  into  activity. 

Upon  this  hint,  that  some  kind  of  radical  departure 
from  the  habitual  is  the  best  way  of  getting  the  child's 


THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK  55 

attention,  we  may  base  our  efforts  to  secure  his  pref- 
erence for  the  object  in  which  we  wish  to  enlist  his 
interest.  Start  out  with  some  novel  feature  in  your 
little  piece  of  work.  If  you  wish  the  little  one  to 
learn  to  build  with  blocks,  do  not  go  on  in  a  slow, 
unmeaning  way,  methodically  planning  to  get  some 
result  about  which  he  knows  and  cares  nothing.  But 
strike  at  once  to  the  heart  of  the  matter.  Say,  per- 
haps, "  Look  at  your  little  donkey,  dear,  he  has  no 
home  to  go  to  and  he  is  tired.  See  how  his  head 
droops.  Let's  make  him  a  house.  What  sort  of  one 
does  he  like  ?  Let's  try  what  we  can  do."  The  child 
will  almost  certainly  set  to  work  with  his  interest 
stimulated  in  the  toy  donkey,  whom  he  already  knows, 
and  reaching  forth  ta  an  unexplored  novelty,  a  donkey- 
house,  which  he  does  not  yet  know*  This  is  "  pro- 
ceeding from  the  known  to  the  unknown,"  as  the 
great  Herbert  Spencer  would  have  said,  and  is  sensi- 
ble. 

Inducing  the  little  child  to  play  for  quite  a  while 
at  a  single  sort  of  play,  is  the  right  means  of  helping 
him  to  concentrate  his  attention.  And  it  can  be 
easily  done  if  we  start  out  with  the  keen  stimulus  of 
awakened  interest  in  the  unknown.  If  nursery  plays 


56        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

proceeded  oftener  upon  the  motif  of  the  adult  detec- 
tive story,  the  child  mind  would  benefit.  This  is  the 
natural  motif  constantly  present  in  nature.  To  dis- 
cover a  mystery,  to  investigate,  to  penetrate  beneath 
the  surface  of  things,  is  the  mightiest  pleasure  intel- 
lectual men  and  women  can  have.  And  to  the 
smallest  child  also,  a  mystery  is  a  shivery  delight. 
Not  necessarily  a  painful  mystery.  We  must  spare 
them  that ;  but  an  awakening  puzzle.  Any  play  that 
is  too  simple  in  its  meaning  is  tiresome  to  the  child. 
Yet,  simplicity  is  only  a  thing  of  experience,  and  what 
is  a  problem  one  day  ceases  to  be  one  the  next.  It  is 
a  happy  sign  when  a  child  will  work  patiently  at  one 
thing  until  he  masters  its  intricacies  and  thereafter 
loses  all  interest  in  it.  Long  enough  is  long  enough. 
Never  make  a  pursuit  tedious  to  an  active  mind. 

It  is  certainly  worth  while  for  us  vigilantly  to  cul- 
tivate in  our  young  children  the  power  of  persistent 
attention.  Yet  nothing  is  ordinarily  more  neglected. 
Instead  of  a  training  in  patience  and  perseverance  our 
nursery  regime  usually  permits  an  endless  succession 
of  unfinished  pursuits,  of  capricious  pastimes.  The 
child  of  two  or  three  is  perpetually  amused,  and  his 
attention  diverted  so  rapidly  from  one  thing  to  an- 


57 

other  that  he  forms  a  habit  of  shifting  it  upon  the 
slightest  occasion.  And  as  he  is  expected  to  tire  of 
everything  quickly,  he  supposes  that  is  the  proper 
thing  to  do. 

Very  rarely  nowadays  do  we  see  a  little  one  amuse 
himself  an  hour  or  so  at  a  time  with  a  single  play. 
And  when  we  do  see  such  a  child  we  may  believe  that 
we  have  fallen  upon  a  genius.  "  If  I  in  any  way 
excel  other  men,"  said  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  "  it  is  in 
the  power  of  patient  thought."  But  this  power  to 
think  long  and  deeply  is  the  most  remarkable  trait 
a  mind  can  possess.  Superficial  people  cannot  chain 
themselves  for  any  length  of  time  to  hard  mental 
work :  merely  clever  ones  daxt  from  one  object  to  an- 
other with  a  fitfulness  that  sometimes  seems  like  bril- 
liancy but  has  no  lasting  quality.  But  the  capacity 
to  dwell  for  a  long  time  upon  one  thought  involves 
both  intensity  of  desire  and  innate  ambition  to  reach 
right  results. 

I  have  seen  this  struggle  for  perfection  show  itself 
in  an  incipient  form  in  a  little  child  but  eighteen 
months  old.  And  how  sincerely  I  respected  that  little 
one.  He  was  sitting  on  his  mother's  lap  beside  the 
library  table  one  evening,  when  in  an  idle  mood  she 


58        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

took  up  a  penny  and  set  it  on  the  head  of  a  small 
gilt  image  about  three  inches  high  and  with  a  head 
scarcely  larger  than  the  coin.  Seeing  that  the  baby 
watched  her  she  said  playfully,  "  Baby  can't  do 
that !  "  The  little  one's  brown  eyes  sparkled  with  a 
look  that  seemed  to  say,  "  Oh,  can't  I  ?  "  And  taking 
the  penny  in  his  fingers  he  essayed  to  balance  it  as 
she  had  done.  It  fell.  "  Oh,"  said  baby  quietly, 
and  picking  it  up  tried  again,  with  the  same  result. 
Without  the  least  sign  of  impatience  or  discourage- 
ment, the  little  thing  tried  over  and  over  again  for 
seventeen  times,  until  at  last  he  succeeded  in  balancing 
the  coin  on  the  head  of  the  image. 

The  brave  baby!  We  gave  him  a  round  of  ap- 
plause, and  he  looked  from  one  to  the  other  of  us  with 
a  curious  little  glance  of  satisfaction.  The  next  day 
he  could  not  be  persuaded  to  undertake  the  same  feat 
again.  Once  having  demonstrated  that  he  could  do 
it  the  act  lost  its  interest.  Here  was  a  tiny  hero  in 
want  of  difficulties  to  conquer;  an  infant  Newton, 
excelling  in  the  ability  to  concentrate  his  whole  mind 
upon  a  single  object  so  long  as  it  was  necessary  for 
that  object  to  absorb  his  attention,  and  then  putting 
it  behind  him  while  he  advanced  to  something  beyond. 


THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK  59 

Few  little  children,  of  course,  voluntarily  set  them- 
selves to  overcome  difficulties,  yet  more  would  do  so 
if  parents  and  nurses  were  not  in  the  habit  of  cater- 
ing to  that  flightiness  characteristic  of  all  young 
things,  which  leads  them  to  follow  up  whatever  mo- 
mentarily attracts  their  attention.  If  the  stimulus 
of  surprise  alluded  to  above,  was  accompanied  by  the 
strong  mental  sensation  of  aroused  desire  to  excel, 
or  at  least,  to  equal  an  example,  the  child  would  much 
more  readily  develop  power  of  concentration. 

But  education  in  this  respect  must  not  go  too  fast. 
To  fatigue  a  growing  power  is  to  stunt  it.  The  little 
one's  interest  in  a  new  thing  may  be  held  by  the  parent 
just  so  long  as  he  does  not  show  signs  of  fatigue,  but 
after  that  the  persistence  in  work  is  an  injury  to 
him.  Ordinarily,  there  is  a  drooping  of  the  body, 
a  shifting  of  position  from  one  foot  to  the  other,  a 
droop  of  the  eye-lids,  betraying  bodily  languor  when 
the  little  brain  becomes  over-taxed.  When  this  oc- 
curs we  must  at  once  change  the  subject.  To  rest  the 
mind  let  the  body  become  active.  An  out-door  play 
is  the  right  alternative  to  an  in-door  pursuit,  but  even 
a  little  game  with  the  windows  open  is  sufficient  to 
change  the  atmosphere  for  a  child,  who  happily,  re- 


cuperates  from  fatigue  as  quickly  as  he  yields  to 
it. 

One  of  the  best  ways  of  teaching  a  small  child  to 
fix  his  attention  is  to  enlist  his  fancy.  Upon  this  law 
of  attraction  Froebel  built  his  system  of  educational 
plays.  When  the  little  one  of  three  or  four  enters 
the  kindergarten  he  is  pretty  sure  of  some  good  mental 
training,  although  this  depends  more  upon  the  teacher 
than  is  generally  known.  All  kindergarten  teaching 
is  not  Froebel  training,  by  any  means.  But  the  ma- 
jority of  children  are  spoiled  for  the  best  results 
before  they  enter  the  kindergarten  because  they  are 
not  trained  from  infancy  to  like  anything  strongly ;  to 
attach  themselves  to  a  single  object  or  pursuit.  The 
baby  who  shows  persistent  liking  for  one  toy,  for  one 
play  over  and  above  all  others,  is  a  hopeful  object. 
For  this  capacity  for  preference  is  a  sign  of  the  dis- 
position that  has  within  it  tenacity  of  purpose. 

A  mother  who  has  at  heart  the  true  interest  of  her 
child  will  leave  nothing  undone  to  attach  that  child 
very  early  to  some  particular  kind  of  activity,  were  it 
merely  kite-flying.  If  she  can  arouse  a  deep  interest 
in  beetles,  in  machinery,  in  railroading,  in  artistic 
doll-dress-making,  in  the  making  of  fudge,  so  that 


THROUGH  PLAY  TO  WORK  61 

her  boy  learns  to  use  energy  without  stint  in  con- 
structing his  miniature  railroad,  her  girl  develops 
capacity  to  make  better  fudge  than  any  of  her  little 
friends,  she  will  have  accomplished  a  great  deal.  We 
must  rescue  the  child  from  the  bog  of  vagueness  and 
lift  him  on  to  the  sure  ground  of  purpose  and  design. 
The  only  hopeless  child  is  one  who  cares  about  noth- 
ing. His  hold  on  life  is  so  loose  that  it  is  like  the 
worst  form  of  pessimism  in  an  adult.  But  a  deep  at- 
tachment to  any  honest  pursuit  is  a  saving  grace  for 
the  idle,  a  spur  to  the  able  child. 

We  should  permit  our  child  great  freedom  in  his 
early  attachments  if  we  aim  to  increase  his  faculty 
of  persistent  attention.  At  first  our  only  hold  upon 
him  is  through  his  desire  for  immediate  enjoyments. 
Time  does  not  exist  for  the  very  young.  To  defer  a 
reward  too  long  is  to  discourage  their  efforts.  Let 
them  see  a  thing  near  enough  to  get  the  flavor  of  it 
in  their  present.  Let  them  get  enjoyment  out  of  the 
thing  itself,  instead  of  out  of  some  future  result. 
How  the  world  has  changed  for  all  of  us  in  three 
decades!  We  can  remember  when  work  was  called 
drudgery  and  reward  held  out  for  its  performance, 
when  days  were  bitter  that  evenings  might  be  pleasant. 


62        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

But  the  newer,  brighter  philosophy  knows  that 
Shakespeare's  beautiful  eulogy  of  effort  was  an  in- 
spiration that  will  last  forever;  and  that  it  is  and 
will  always  be  true  that  "  Joy's  soul  is  in  the  doing." 
The  child  is  a  diviner.  He  feels  that  there  ought 
to  be  joy  in  work,  and  if  there  is  not  something  is 
wrong.  In  fact,  because  there  is  not  yet  any  co- 
ordination in  his  muscles  and  nerves,  all  effort  is  work 
and  play  to  him  at  the  same  time.  He  calls  throw- 
ing stones  in  the  water,  work.  To  turn  his  vagueness 
into  purpose  we  may  show  him  how  to  direct  his 
stones  toward  a  certain  point.  When  he  learns  to 
aim  he  has  learned  to  control  some  wandering  im- 
pulses. The  deft,  silent  but  persistent  infusing  of 
purpose  into  the  plays  of  childhood  is  the  best  kind 
of  teaching  a  mother  can  attempt.  The  instant  we 
succeed  in  kindling  the  spark  of  ambition  within  the 
small  breast  the  rest  is  easy.  We  may  thereafter  di- 
rect him  to  occupations  that  are  not  entirely  agreeable 
at  first  sight,  as  he  views  them,  but  promise  enjoyment 
later  on,  when  skill  has  been  gained.  And  with  this 
we  set  our  child  the  first  great  lesson  of  life;  that 
steady  attention  to  the  work  undertaken  is  the  only 
way  to  gain  permanent  satisfaction. 


THE  MOTHEK  TONGUE 

"  There  is  an  easily  conceivable  state  of  things  that 
dispense   entirely   with   school    instruction   in   the   mother 
tongue." —  BAIN. 

ENGLISH  is  sometimes  called  "  the  grammar- 
less  language  " ;  but  many  of  us  will  recall 
certain  dull  old  text  books  of  a  past  genera- 
tion that  made  spring  afternoons  disagreeable  to  us, 
shut  within  the  walls  of  the  school  room,  conning 
over  and  over  again,  the  phrases  that  were  set  us 
to  parse.  And  what  was  the  use  of  it  all?  Only 
to  stuff  the  memory  with  a  dross  that  experience  was 
at  some  pains  to  cast  off.  The  study  of  English  gram- 
mar does  not  impart  capacity  to  speak  the  language 
correctly.  It  merely  confirms  knowledge  previously 
gained.  Unless  the  child  grows  up  in  an  atmosphere 
of  culture  he  will  have  great  trouble  in  acquiring  the 

fluent  use  of  his  mother  tongue. 

63 


64         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

The  great  difference  between  children  of  cultivated 
parents  and  those  whose  early  surroundings  were 
sordid,  is  manifest  in  their  capacity  for  expression. 
The  well  reared  child  uses  language  with  complete 
ease  and  naturalness ;  even  the  niceties  of  expression 
coming  from  him  with  unconscious  imitation  of  his 
elders  at  home.  He  has  the  advantage  of  a  large 
vocabulary,  being  thereby  enabled  to  draw  fine  dis- 
tinctions ;  than  which  there  is  no  more  important  fea- 
ture of  education.  I  have  known  children  of  three- 
and-a-half  years  capable  of  appreciating  the  delicate 
shades  of  meaning  in  such  words  as  "  inclination," 
"  naturally,"  "  temperament  "  and  other  less  common 
words.  And  such  familiarity  with  the  mother  tongue 
may  come  without  the  least  effort  if  the  child  is  always 
talked  with  as  if  he  was  an  intelligent  being,  no.t  a  toy. 

From  feeling  and  doing,  the  child  passes  to  speak- 
ing. For  the  first  eighteen  months  he  will  compass 
little  more  than  the  mastery  of  the  elemental  sounds 
— "  ba,  da,  la,  ma,"  etc.  And  these  it  has  ever  been 
the  delight  of  mothers  to  teach  their  little  ones. 
What  a  proud  day  it  is  when  baby  utters  two  syllables 
consecutively,  and  lisps  out  unintentionally,  that 
name  soon  to  become  the  synonym  of  his  earthly  hap- 


THE  MOTHER  TONGUE  65 

piness  — "  mama !  "  Through  the  quick  response 
made  to  this  vague  call  he  gets  his  first  lesson  in 
naming  objects,  or  word-teaching.  And  henceforth 
he  proceeds  to  give  names  to  everything  that  interests 
him,  twisting  appellatives  in  his  efforts  to  imitate  and 
so  building  up  that  peculiar  lingo  known  as  "  baby 
language." 

The  temptation  to  adopt  this  quaint,  distorted  dia- 
lect when  talking  to  babies  continually  besets  lovers  of 
children,  who  feel  a  natural  impulse  to  bring  them- 
selves down  to  the  level  of  infantile  understanding. 
But  we  should  recollect  that  it  is  no  compliment  to 
the  person  we  desire  to  please,  to  repeat  his  imitations. 
If  there  really  were  such  a  thing  as  baby  language, 
originated  by  infants  and  founded  upon  a  different 
plan  from  our  own,  we  might  judiciously  adopt  it 
temporarily.  But  "  baby  lingo  "  is  merely  a  strug- 
gling, incomplete  mother  tongue,  the  earnest  attempt 
of  the  little  mind  in  our  midst  to  adapt  itself  to  adult 
ways  of  communication.  Is  it  not  unjust  to  throw 
this  little  toiler  back  on  his  own  resources?  True 
sympathy  would  impel  us  to  rather  aid  his  toil  by 
teaching  him,  bit  by  bit,  as  he  is  able  to  follow,  the 
nomenclature  which  is  to  give  him  power  to  express 


66         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

his  own  personality  and  link  him  to  human  life  and 
thought. 

How  early  the  child  gets  a  sense  of  its  own  identity 
is  a  puzzling  question.  Usually  it  repeats  its  own 
name  soon  after  it  can  repeat  the  syllables,  with  ap- 
parent reference  to  itself.  At  twenty  months  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  normal  child  realizes  itself  as  a 
personage,  separate  from  others.  It  then  begins  to 
make  a  kind  of  stand  for  its  personal  rights,  its  ego 
assuming  importance  in  its  own  eyes.  Some  children 
begin  to  say  "  I  "  about  this  time,  but  ordinarily,  the 
habit  of  alluding  to  himself  by  the  name  others  call 
him  by  holds  for  the  first  two  or  three  years.  In  this 
matter,  there  should  be  no  interference;  let  the  child 
call  himself  anything  he  likes ;  let  him  give  any  odd 
name  to  things  that  may  tickle  his  fancy;  only,  we 
should  not  aid  him  in  any  eccentricity,  by  helping  him 
to  give  fancy  names  to  objects.  What  the  little  one 
does  of  his  own  accord  is  not  amiss ;  his  small  errors 
will  drop  away  as  he  corrects  himself  by  comparison 
with  adults.  But  if  adults  themselves  talk  nonsense 
with  whom  may  he  compare  himself  for  his  improve- 
ment? 

It  is  perhaps,  hard  to  adopt  the  golden  mean  and 


THE  MOTHEE  TONGUE  67 

neither  aid  too  fast  nor  hinder  over  much.  Our  plan 
must  be  to  let  the  child  learn  of  his  own  impulse, 
rather  than  to  teach  him  deliberately  to  talk.  He 
will  learn  swiftly  and  surely,  through  the  tendency 
to  imitate,  if  we  are  careful  to  set  good  models  before 
them.  "  Did  she  ever  talk  baby  talk  ? "  asked  the 
kindergarten  teacher,  when  my  three-and-a-quarter- 
year-old  little  girl  entered  her  class.  A  shy,  silent  tot 
she  was,  but  her  tongue  once  loosened  she  uttered  her 
fancies  as  well  as  most  children  of  thrice  her  age. 
Without  any  consciousness  of  her  advantage,  because 
she  was  in  the  habit  of  using  words  as  her  home  circle 
used  them. 

There  ought  not  to  be  any  effort  made  to  "  talk 
down  "  to  little  ones.  But  we  should  be  careful  to 
make  every  word  we  use  very  distinct,  clear  and  per- 
fect in  enunciation.  It  is  probably  inevitable  that 
children  hear  some  slang;  it  is  unfortunately,  one  of 
the  kinds  of  dross  housekeepers  do  not  sweep  out  in 
the  spring  house-cleanings.  But  the  person  who  takes 
pains  to  teach  some  tot  a  bit  of  slang,  purely  for  the 
fun  of  hearing  the  infant  tongue  lisp  the  twisted  syl- 
lables, or  shout  the  meaningless  phrase,  deserves  the 
punishment  that  he  will  get  from  having  that  phrase 


68        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

dinned  in  his  ears  endlessly,  in  season  and  out  of  sea- 
son. I  recollect  a  young  army  officer  who  thought  it 
comical  to  instil  into  a  three-year-old  boy  an  acquaint- 
ance with  some  choice  army  slang,  and  who  was  un- 
able to  make  a  call  at  that  house  for  months  after- 
wards without  feeling  the  rush  of  a  small  body 
against  his  own,  while  the  shout  rang  in  his  ears  — 
"  I'll  put  a  head  on  you,  I'll  put  a  head  on  you ! " 
until  he  wished  he  had  never  been  so  smart.  Now 
it  is  certain  that  our  child  will  learn  all  the  slang 
that  is  good  for  him  outside,  in  the  street,  or  at 
school;  we  need  not  help  this  side  of  his  training. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  wise  to  insist  on  the  ab- 
solutely accurate  pronounciation  of  all  words  he  uses 
for  the  first  time.  It  is  discouraging  to  the  two- 
year-old  disciple  of  culture.  It  is  better  to  correct 
his  mistakes  indirectly,  by  being  accurate  in  our  own 
pronunciation.  Bright  children  readily  accept  sug- 
gestions and  do  not  need  perpetual  drill. 

Certain  quaint  idioms  grow  up  in  nearly  all 
nurseries  and  may  be  tolerated  while  they  last. 
Children  with  a  spice  of  originality  are  pretty  sure 
to  invent  names  for  things,  either  because  the  names 
we  tell  them  are  too  hard  for  their  undisciplined 


THE  MOTHER  TONGUE  69 

tongues,  or  through  some  capricious  impulse.  For 
instance,  a  small  boy  always  would  say  "  bow- wop  " 
instead  of  the  more  usual  "  bow-bow  "  for  dog,  and 
a  little  girl  of  fifteen  months  invented  for  her  bottle 
of  milk  the  queer  title  "  bobbetty-ann,"  which  con- 
tinued as  a  household  phrase  for  several  weeks. 

The  child  with  a  musical  ear  —  and  Preyer  says 
that  no  child  whose  hearing  is  normally  constituted 
is  entirely  unmusical  —  acquires  not  only  words,  but 
accents  infallibly.  And  as  the  rule  is  in  all  ped- 
agogical codes  —  Never  to  teach  the  child  anything 
he  will  have  to  unlearn  —  it  is  supremely  desirable 
that  the  little  one  be  surrounded  from  the  first  with 
persons  whose  speech  is  not  only  free  from  the 
grosser  errors,  but  refined.  We  have  advanced  so  far 
as  to  banish  the  stuttering  nurse,  although  she  pos- 
sess angelic  virtues;  let  us  go  further  and  root  out 
the  brogue  of  the  "  good-hearted  "  Irish  girl,  with 
her  supposed  attachment  to  her  charge  and  her  un- 
curbed temper  which  makes  her  discipline  as  rough 
as  her  tongue.  "  Ole  mammy "  has  vanished  by 
natural  process,  and  while  we  yearn  for  the  graces 
of  manner  and  juvenility  of  mind  which  made  the 
transplanted  African  an  incomparable  nurse,  we  may 


TO 

congratulate  ourselves  that  her  unforgetable  murder 
of  English  is  a  thing  of  the  past. 

How  they  stuck  —  those  perversions  of  speech! 
I  recollect  how  much  pains  my  father  —  a  Northern 
man  married  into  a  Southern  family  —  took  with 
me  in  my  tender  years,  regarding  the  substitution 
of  "  them  "  for  "  those,"  which  is  one  of  the  com- 
monest errors  of  the  African.  And  how  relentless 
he  was  in  penalties  for  the  employment  of  the  double 
negative.  Thanks  to  him,  I  passed  unscathed 
through  the  language  ordeal  of  a  colored  nurse  and 
child  comrades  with  a  singularly  slip-shod  vocabu- 
lary. But  the  triumph  was  hardly  earned  by  a  won- 
drous unpopularity  and  the  charge  of  being  a  "  little 
miss  Dictionary."  The  school  child  makes  the  path 
of  superiority  hard.  The  compensations,  however, 
enable  one  to  bear  with  some  satisfaction  the  little 
discomforts  of  that  swift-gliding  epoch. 

The  careful  mother  allows  no  one  to  care  for  her 
little  ones  whose  speech  is  notably  deficient  in  gram- 
matical construction.  Sprightly  Master  Charles  and 
little  Miss  Dora  are  too  much  on  the  alert  to  add 
new  words  to  their  vocabulary  for  it  to  be  safe  to 
trust  them  with  any  species  of  ignoramus.  Yet,  de- 


THE  MOTHEE  TONGUE  71 

spite  good  care,  most  persons  whose  lives  are  passed 
out  in  the  world,  not  among  books,  retain  in  ma- 
turity some  crude  accents  learned  in  childhood. 
When  they  speak  correctly  they  are  affected.  Fluent 
elegance  results  from  that  right  usage  early  in  life 
which  makes  pure  language  "  second  nature."  Noth- 
ing more  infallibly  denotes  the  best  breeding,  for 
slovenly  enunciation  and  slang  terms  are  so  preva- 
lent even  in  excellent  schools  that  the  young  person 
who  speaks  the  mother  tongue  with  a  pure  accent  at 
once  establishes  his  superior  training. 

Professor  Charles  Eliot  has  expressed  himself  very 
earnestly  on  the  subject  of  the  supreme  importance 
of  culture  in  the  mother  tongue.  He  goes  so  far 
as  to  declare  that  person  well  educated  who  has  a  good 
education  in  English,  though  he  may  be  lacking  both 
in  the  classics  and  science.  Some  sacrifice,  some 
particular  attention,  is  therefore,  not  too  stringent 
a  demand  to  make  upon  the  parent  who  wishes  to  se- 
cure for  his  offspring  this  rare  and  fine  culture.  For 
it  is  rare.  With  the  general  relaxation  of  all  rules 
of  propriety  for  our  young  people  nowadays,  we 
have  lately  excused  them  from  the  necessity  of  speak- 
ing good  English.  The  talk  of  the  grammar  school 


72         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

child,  just  dismissed  from  the  class  room,  is  appalling. 
Everything  is  apparently,  to  be  learned;  the  school 
has  been  able  to  do  almost  nothing  in  the  way  of 
practical  insight  into  the  beauties  of  language  and 
the  obligation  of  a  correct  use  of  the  mother  tongue. 
Nor  does  the  current  literature  of  the  day  afford  any 
assistance,  such  as  the  older  literature,  stilted  and 
unnatural  as  it  was  in  many  respects,  did  afford.  I 
observe  that  in  modern  fiction  which  deals  with  the 
talk  of  upper  class  children,  their  talk  is  far  below 
that  of  their  parents.  They  say  "  you  ain't " — "  as 
never  was,"  "  drawed  "  for  drawn,  and  so  on.  It  is 
no  wonder,  if  this  is  a  photograph  of  life  and  they  are 
allowed  to  talk  in  this  way  at  home,  that  school 
teachers  find  it  impossible  to  convey  to  their  lower 
grades  a  practical  knowledge  of  grammar.  It  must 
seem  to  the  ordinary  child  as  dead  a  tongue  as  He- 
brew. It  is  what  we  hear  daily,  what  enters  into  our 
ordinary  existence,  that  gets  hold  of  us. 

It  is  essential  then,  even  at  the  risk  of  making 
our  child  what  is  called  "  priggish  "  in  the  eyes  of  his 
unlettered  comrades,  to  impress  upon  him  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  using  only  pure  speech.  Let  it 
be  simple  and  unadorned  when  he  is  with  his  crowd ; 


THE  MOTHER  TONGUE  73 

but  at  least,  not  faulty.  If  he  finds  it  indispensable 
in  play,  to  bring  in  a  popular  slang  term,  let  it  be 
as  a  superficial  tag  that  can  be  easily  dropped  again. 
The  use  of  correct  language  does  not  constitute  any 
restraint  upon  the  life,  liberty  or  happiness  of  a 
young  person.  It  is  as  easy  to  talk  brightly  and 
cheerfully  in  pure  accents  and  with  the  use  of  irre- 
proachable terms  as  in  the  foulest  vernacular.  Chil- 
dren, however,  seek  for  strong  expressions;  simple, 
concrete  words  with  a  tang  to  them.  And  this  is  an 
indication  of  the  superiority  of  Saxon  words  for 
every-day  use.  How  much  better  is  it,  for  instance, 
to  teach  a  child  to  express  the  idea  of  living  in  a 
house  by  the  respectable  word  —  full  of  associations 
— "  dwell  "  instead  of  the  affected  "  reside  "  which 
I  have  heard  little  girls  fling  out  with  an  air  that 
marked  them  imitators  of  some  "  refined "  nurse. 
Only  persons  with  a  real  gift  for  feeling  word  values 
can  appreciate  the  difference  between  the  sensations 
evoked  in  the  untaught  child  mind  by  various  words 
that  have  invisible  links  with  certain  thoughts.  Yet 
there  are  magnetic  words ;  for  instance,  to  tell  a  child 
to  "  rest,"  brings  with  the  very  suggestion  something 
almost  irresistible.  He  may  protest  that  he  is  not 


74        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

tired;  yet  the  word  "rest"  is  soothing;  it  has  a 
concrete  meaning  and  leads  to  an  action.  While  the 
phrase  that  is  so  often  thoughtlessly  dinned  into 
heedless  little  ears  — "  be  quiet !  "  is  provocative. 
It  suggests  a  suppression,  an  inhibition  leading  away 
from  desire,  and  is  in  the  nature  of  a  command  con- 
trary to  personal  wishes. 

Parents  should  he  ca«reful  about  using  two  words 
that  are  commonly  misplaced  and  lead  to  mental  con- 
fusion in  the  child.  They  are  "  look  "  and  "  see." 
Some  instinct  tells  the  child  that  he  ought  not  to  be 
required  to  see  everything  he  looks  at.  He  may  be 
looking,  with  all  his  might  'and  yet  fail  to  see  the 
thing  that  his  attention  is  being  drawn  to.  "  I  am 
looking !  "  the  little  one  cries  out,  and  becomes  ir- 
ritated at  being  accused  of  no.t  attending.  Seeing  is 
a  mental  act,  yet  not  one  person  in  many  discrimi- 
nates between  observing  a  thing  with  the  eye,  and 
perceiving  the  meaning  of  it,  inwardly.  If  we  are 
so  careless  in  the  separation  of  ideas  how  can  we  ex- 
pect to  make  ourselves  intelligible  to  a  child  ?  It  is 
correct  to  say,  when  we  wish  to  direct  the  little  one's 
attention  to  an  object ; — "  Look  at  that  dog,  dear. 
Do  you  see  what  a  nice  expression  he  has  ?  "  While 


THE  MOTHER  TONGUE  Y5 

it  would  be  entirely  wide  of  the  mark  to  ask  him 
to  "  look  "  at  the  dog's  amiable  face,  because  the  ani- 
mal's amiability  is  a  quality,  not  an  object,  and  to  be 
apprehended  by  the  mind  alone.  If  a  mother  will 
spend  a  little  time  in  thinking  out  the  significance 
of  the  words  most  in  common  use  when  she  is  con- 
versing with  her  child,  and  clearly  distinguishing 
between  those  that  denote  acts  and  those  that  refer 
to  thoughts  only,  she  will  avoid  some  of  the  worst 
pit-falls  of  language,  and  come  to  an  understanding 
with  her  child  that  may  seem  to  her  almost  mar- 
velous. 

Many  of  the  unreasonable  requisitions  of  parents 
arise  through  a  misapprehension  between  adult  and 
child  about  language.  I  heard  my  grandfather  —  a 

wise  lawyer  —  say  many  years  ago,  that  most  of  the 

• ••'•'• 
cases  that  came  into  his  hands  had  their  origin  in 

some  misunderstanding  about  "  terms  of  speech." 
He  observed  that  if  once  persons  could  come  to  a 
complete  understanding  as  to  the  meaning  of  the 
words  they  employed  most  disputes  could  be  avoided. 
If  it  is  difficult  for  adults  to  understand  one  another, 
is  it  not  much  harder  for  a  child  to  get  the  mean- 
ing of  words  that  come  crowding  upon  him  before  he 


has  had  the  experience  to  discern  that  there  are, 
shades  of  meaning  between  every  two?  Children 
who  are  ambitious  of  shining  as  talkers  have  funny 
little  experiences.  I  recollect  that  I  heard  a  pedanti- 
cal  little  comrade  use  a  word  that  struck  me  as 
vastly  fine  — "  repeat,"  when  I  was  about  seven  years 
old,  and  I  sought  a  fitting  occasion  to  bring  it  in. 
So,  on  trying  to  state  that  something  I  knew  was 
too  momentous  to  be  put  into  words,  I  observed  that 
I  could  not  "  repeat "  it.  The  other  girl  looked  at 
me  with  a  superior  air  and  commented  drily,  "  You 
mean  you  can't  express  it,  don't  you  ?  "  And  I  was 
struck  dumb  with  admiration,  nor  ventured  to  try 
another  original  phrase  on  her  for  many  a  long  day. 
How  many  years  ago  that  was,  and  it  seems  like  only 
yesterday!  Such  indelible  impressions  do  these 
apparently  trivial  incidents  make  on  the  child 
mind. 

Parents  can  aid  their  children  materially,  not  only 
by  using  good  English  before  them  but  by  oc- 
casionally dropping  in  their  presence  a  hint  about 
some  general  grammatical  rule  so  simple  that  they 
can  themselves  apply  it.  What  difference  does  it 
make  where  we  get  our  knowledge,  so  we  get  it  ?  Let 


THE  MOTHER  TONGUE  77 

the  rule  come  out  of  a  story,  if  possible ;  it  will  make 
the  deeper  impression.  It  was  from  the  habit  of 
"  browsing  in  a  library "  which  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  said  was  the  best  of  all  kinds  of  education, 
that  I  gleaned  many  a  bit  of  grammatical  lore  which 
no  one  could  have  forcibly  instilled  into  a  dreaming 
head.  A  trivial  story  impressed  a  certain  fact  that 
text-books  might  have  preached  in  vain,  about  af- 
firmatives and  negatives.  A  poem  of  Moore  told  me 
other  things  more  distinctly  than  Lindley  Murray 
ever  did.  A  mother  who  takes  the  pains  to  clinch 
a  fact  with  a  tale  need  never  repeat  her  argument. 
It  is  easy  in  this  way  to  make  grammar  take  root 
in  a  child's  mind  without  the  use  of  a  text-book,  and 
a  wonderful  saving  of  time  may  be  accomplished 
in  school  education. 

I  have  seen  this  ideal  carried  out  in  families  where 
conscientious  care  is  bestowed  on  the  nursery.  Mites 
of  three  converse  as  fluently  and  with  as  faultless  a 
use  of  the  mother  tongue  as  their  seniors  by  many 
years.  One  six-year-old  boy  expresses  philosophical 
ideas  in  excellent  languaga  "  Prigs  ? "  By  no 
means.  Natural,  simple,  shy  children,  entirely  un- 
conscious of  their  own  superiority ;  knowing  no  better 


78         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

than  to  practise  daily  the  culture  belonging  of  right 
to  their  condition. 

We  owe  it  to  our  children  to  give  them  the  best 
we  have  or  can  achieve  at  all  times.  When  the  tot 
with  head  scarce  reaching  to  our  knee  asks  anxiously, 
"  Is  that  right  ?  Why  isn't  that  right  ?  "  we  ought  to 
answer  as  truly  as  if  we  were  on  the  witness  stand 
in  court.  Every  fairly  educated  woman  ought  to  be 
able  to  train  her  children  in  the  correct  use  of  the 
mother  tongue.  It  is  merely  a  question  of  inclination 
on  her  part.  The  miserable  excuse  for  not  making 
the  effort  is  usually  that  children  "  will  learn  all 
that  after  awhile  in  school."  I  wish  to  make  it 
clear  that  they  will  never  learn  grammar  so  well  in 
school  and  after  six  years  as  they  can  learn  it  at  home 
before  six. 

If  the  Socratic  method,  the  verbal  method  of  im- 
parting learning,  is  of  any  value  anywhere,  it  is  of 
value  in  teaching  languages.  Especially  in  teaching 
the  mother  tongue.  We  need  not  be  forever  drilling 
a  child  and  it  is  not  even  necessary  to  be  eternally 
thinking  about  instructing  him.  Example  is  a  great 
deal.  And  judgment  helps.  We  should  realize  that 
some  idiosyncrasies  are  native  to  childhood.  It  is  an 


THE  MOTHEE  TONGUE  79 

infantile  tendency  to  make  all  verbs  regular  and  to 
invent  adjectives.  The  three-year-old  often  says 
"  roily "  for  slippery ;  "  fally "  for  unsafe,  etc. 
These  inventions  ought  to  he  treated  indulgently,  for 
they  will  speedily  be  out-grown.  It  is  more  im- 
portant to  help  a  child  to  extend  his  vocabulary  by 
using  new  terms  in  his  presence,  in  a  way  he  can 
comprehend. 

There  is  an  immense  difference  between  children 
in  the  number  of  words  they  employ  at  the  same  age. 
Some  possess  about  fifteen  hundred  words  at  three 
years,  others  less,  and  others  again,  two  thousand. 
It  is  desirable  for  them  to  get  early  as  large  a  vocabu- 
lary as  possible,  but  this  will  regulate  itself.  By  the 
time  he  is  four  an  intelligent  child  ought  to  be  able 
to  express  most  that  he  thinks  and  feels  without  much 
difficulty.  And  if  he  has  been  well  taught  he  will 
not  have  the  slightest  trouble  in  transferring  his  flu- 
ency to  paper  as  soon  as  he  learns  to  write.  Gram- 
mar and  composition  and  even  the  elements  of 
rhetoric  will  have  been  insensibly  acquired  during 
the  first  six  or  eight  years  and  the  best  possible  start 
made  toward  a  good  education.  Picture  books  with 
verses  are  very  helpful,  but  the  mother  should 


80         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION" 

choose  those  that  are  well  written ;  that  is,  by  authors 
who  know  how  to  write  English.  One  idea  clearly 
expressed  is  worth  twenty  that  are  put  forth  in  an 
involved,  obscure  style. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION 

"  Qualities  are  not  inherent  in  objects ;  they  are  what  we 
have  experienced  about  these  objects.  Hence,  the  different 
ways  people  have  of  seeing  things." — MCL.ELLAN. 

DID  you  ever  hunt  a  needle  in  a  haystack? 
Did  you  ever  go  to  a  world's  fair  with 
an  immense  crowd  about  you  and  try  to 
pick  out  the  masterpiece  in  the  Italian  gallery  of 
paintings  and  the  choicest  bit  of  ivory  carving  in 
the  Swiss  rooms?  Or  did  you  ever  try  to  find  a 
friend  on  Broadway,  who  had  promised  to  meet  you 
about  three  in  the  afternoon,  somewhere  between 
Thirty-fourth  and  Forty-second  streets!  Then  you 
know  what  it  is  to  be  bewildered  and  made  cross 
by  a  whirling  succession  of  impressions  and  a  mass 
of  indistinguishable  objects  all  hurtling  against  your 
eyes  and  ears  until  you  are  weary  of  the  world. 

So  the  big  world  seems  to  a  little,  little  child, 
81 


82         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

tagging  after  its  parents,  trying  to  find  something 
small  enough  to  get  hold  of  and  understand.  So  he 
becomes  weary  and  discouraged  in  the  endeavor  to 
pick  out  single  impressions  from  those  that  are 
thronging  on  his  senses.  And  how  much  he  needs 
the  aid  of  his  parents'  experience ;  how  absolutely  he 
is  at  the  mercy  of  their  candor  and  sympathy,  and 
fainting  for  their  practical  advice!  How  rarely  is 
his  need  understood  and  ministered  to!  There  is 
scarcely  a  day  that  I  am  not  made  impatient  with 
the  abstraction  of  mothers  who  take  their  children 
abroad  for  recreation.  Their  bored  air  and  listless 
replies  depress  youthful  spirits  and  discourage  con- 
versation. They  perform  unwillingly  a  disagreeable 
duty,  not  realizing  that  while  they  are  exercising  the 
bodies  of  their  charges  they  are  helping  to  stultify 
their  minds.  By  refusing  to  give  intelligent  replies 
to  the  eager,  interested  questions  of  the  little  crea- 
tures they  are  simply  throwing  the  children  back  upon 
themselves  in  a  way  to  confuse  their  faculties  beyond 
recall. 

Yet  apart  from  the  value  of  a  mother's  explana- 
tions to  her  little  one  I  believe  that  any  one  who  tries 
the  plan  can  get  real  pleasure  from  watching  and 


CULTIVATING  OBSEEVATION          83 

helping  on  the  pretty  play  of  childish  observations 
and  ideas.  We  get  richly  repaid  for  our  slight 
trouble  in  the  possession  of  intelligent,  well-informed 
children  whose  susceptibility  to  new  impressions  is 
keen  yet  sane,  without  that  unfortunate  nervousness 
that  too  often  shows  itself  where  a  shy  nature  has 
to  recover  from  rebuffs  and  overcome  too  many  un- 
pleasant obstacles  in  the  satisfaction  of  its  legitimate 
curiosity. 

Every  miscomprehension  on  the  part  of  an  elder 
is  a  rebuff,  and  these  are  deplorably  frequent.  We 
are  so  kind  about  drawing  to  the  surface  the  latent 
virtues  and  talents  of  our  friends,  and  so  indifferent 
to  the  true  meaning  of  our  children's  stammering 
explanations !  Do  we  seriously  question  ourselves 
as  to  the  validity  of  the  impressions  our  children  have 
gained  from  us  about  those  numerous  matters  they 
have  laid  before  us,  trusting  our.  oracular  judgment  ? 
Have  we  been  careful,  deliberate  and  definite 
in  responding  to  appeals  and  equally  prudent 
in  excluding  from  their  eyes  and  ears  things  likely 
to  hurt  their  mobile  minds?  Nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain than  that  the  child  who  is  not  guarded  from 
evil  and  supplied  with  mental  food  which  is  whole- 


84        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

some  and  agreeable  will  find  out  for  himself  some 
sort  of  nutriment  to  feed  his  insatiate  hunger  for  new 
impressions.  The  less  he  digests  the  more  he  seeks, 
like  a  dyspeptic  who  swallows  masses  of  food  and 
assimilates  nothing.  The  child  who  wearies  quickly 
of  everything,  who  longs  for  excitement  constantly 
renewed,  who  glances  at  this  and  that  and  cares  for 
nothing, —  this  is  the  child  who  has  not  been  trained 
to  observe  anything  well,  whose  eyes  wander,  whose 
ears  are  dull,  whose  faculties  are  not  awakened  to 
the  details  of  any  phase  of  life,  but  who  simply 
thinks  of  everything  as  a  great  moving  picture  show, 
which  he  can  look  at  without  making  any  effort  to 
comprehend. 

The  first  feeling  that  lifts  a  human  being  above 
the  level  of  the  brutes  is  wonder.  Animals  are 
capable  of  astonishment  only;  not  of  awe  and  ad- 
miration. The  higher  we  go  in  the  scale  of  hu- 
manity the  more  completely  developed  we  find  a 
feeling  which  is  the  beginning  of  religious  and  moral 
ideas,  as  it  is  the  life  of  the  intellect.  Dull  and 
ignorant  people  have  a  little  of  it  but  in  a  passive 
way.  They  see  a  thing  which  is  out  of  the  range  of 
their  experience,  and  they  recognize,  with  something 


CULTIVATING  OBSEEVATION          85 

like  envious  surprise,  that  it  is  above  their  compre- 
hension. In  those  southern  countries  where  railroads 
are  still  unfamiliar  the  young  darkies  will  sometimes 
stand  for  hours,  gazing  with  vague,  dumb  astonish- 
ment at  a  steam  threshing  machine,  affrighted  at  its 
noisy  whistle,  and  ready  to  flee  at  the  first  sign  of 
malignity  on  the  part  of  the  supposed  demon.  Their 
wonder  is  a  poor,  meager  sentiment.  They  stand 
like  animals,  simply  stultified. 

But  with  what  tremors  a  child  of  cultured  parents 
views  new  machines!  Here  is  something  to  investi- 
gate, to  trace  to  its  sourca  He  is  charmed  at  find- 
ing something  not  quite  simple  and  which  he  must 
labor  to  understand.  The  working  of  the  shining 
wheels  and  pistons,  the  dilating,  life-like  action  of 
the  splendid  thing  enchains  his  imagination  and  he 
could  study  it  forever.  It  is  disappointing  to  be 
allowed  only  a  superficial  view  of  what  is  so  full  of 
delightful  mystery;  to  be  torn  away  with  his  curi- 
osity only  half  satisfied,  and  cut  off  with  a  perfunc- 
tory history  of  the  wonder  that  has  attracted  all  his 
admiration.  I  think  the  best  person  to  show  a  child 
the  machinery  hall  in  a  museum  is  a  youthful  grand- 
father. He  is  able  to  re-live  his  childish  sensations 


86        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

and  sympathize  with  the  excitement  a  child  feels  at 
sight  of  wondrous  novelties  as  a  jaded  father  or 
mother  cannot!  And  then,  the  grandfather  has 
plenty  of  time;  parents  only  a  limited  amount.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  to  satisfy  a  child  time  is 
necessary. 

The  manner  in  which  a  child  views  a  great,  mag- 
nificent piece  of  machinery  in  action  indicates  the 
measure  of  his  general  intelligence.  The  dull  child 
will  exhibit  merely  fright;  the  born  mechanician  or 
the  originating,  progressive  mind  is  filled  with  ad- 
miration, and  feels  itself  stimulated  to  emulation,  in- 
spired to  new  flights.  Such  a  child  goes  home  filled 
with  the  desire  to  undertake  enterprises  of  his  own; 
he  too,  wants  to  propel  boats,  drive  the  great  factory 
wheel,  manage  the  engine,  and  put  in  operation  that 
force  which  seems  to  him  the  embodiment  of  all 
poetry.  In  a  word,  he  would  become  a  navigator, 
an  engineer,  just  as  earlier,  attracted  through  lower 
appetites,  he  longed  to  keep  a  candy  shop  or  sell  soda 
Avater. 

It  is  customary  to  take  no  account  of  these  fleet- 
ing and  shallow  desires  which  children  from  time  to 
time  betray  to  us ;  but  trivial  as  they  seem  they  may 


CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION          87 

influence  their  whole  lives.  There  is  no  possibility 
of  estimating  the  effect  of  a  single  impression  upon 
the  mind  of  a  mere  infant.  Memory  treasures  up 
the  most  absurd  incidents  in  our  past  life  and  neg- 
lects to  register  events  that  we  consider  of  supreme 
importance.  Nor  do  we  know  why.  We  cannot  in 
any  way  determine  what  particular  impression  is  to 
become  permanent  or  what  one  will  fade  away.  Re- 
calling our  past,  we  are  often  vexed  to  find  some 
trifling  incident  recur  again  and  again,  that  we  would 
fain  put  away,  while  about  the  great  and  stirring 
occurrence  which  we  are  eager  to  recollect  in  detail 
we  have  the  vaguest  idea.  And  it  is  the  little  things 
that  return  often  that  influence  us  most  and  finally 
come  to  have  a  strong  hold  on  our  natures.  The 
ridiculous  experiences  of  which  a  child's  memory  is 
built  up !  I  remember  now  with  mortification,  that 
for  many  years  a  queer  old  superstition  about  poison 
being  located  in  the  first  finger  of  the  left  hand 
brought  me  to  the  habit  of  avoiding  the  use  of  that 
finger.  I  would  not  touch  my  face  with  it,  because 
a  garrulous  neighbor  who  was  in  the  way  of  being  a 
favorite  with  me,  once  said  emphatically  — "  All  the 
poison  in  your  body  is  in  that  first  finger !  "  I  told 


88         THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

nobody  about  it  but  believed  the  story  and  recollected 
it.  It  is  strange  but  true  that  the  trifling  likings  and 
dislikes  of  our  childhood  grow  into  the  tastes 
and  prejudices  of  maturity.  Consequently,  what 
a  child  thinks  and  prefers  is  important.  He  is 
the  master  of  his  own  fate,  through  the  very  infan- 
tile preferences  of  which  we  so  seldom  take  ac- 
count. 

Children  often  seemed  to  be  whirled  about  like 
leaves  in  a  high  wind,  silly  in  their  changeableness. 
They  want  one  thing  to-day  and  something  else  to- 
morrow and  there  appears  to  be  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  one  of  their  aims  or  ambitions  is  of 
more  consequence  than  another.  Nevertheless,  there 
is  some  little  betrayal  of  character  through  these 
flippancies.  A  certain  note  sounds  once  and  again 
as  a  single  strain  of  melody  creeps  through  the  be- 
wildering crash  of  Wagner's  music.  Happy  that 
mother  who  is  gifted  with  such  insight  that  she  can 
follow  this  slender  thread  of  personality  through  the 
inconsistencies  of  her  child's  ideas !  There  is  always 
a  key-note,  a  persistent  fancy  or  taste,  and  if  that  is 
wisely  laid  hold  of  it  becomes  the  guide  to  a  perfect 
education  of  his  faculties.  The  persistent  taste  will 


CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION          89 

inevitably  give  the  cast  to  character,  and  the  stronger 
it  is  the  more  valuable  will  be  the  character. 

The  strongest  impression  of  all  our  lives  makes  or 
mars  us.  What  brutal  men  have  grown  up  through 
a  hatred  contracted  in  tender  years!  What  heroes 
have  developed  out  of  a  reward  wisely  bestowed, 
what  numbers  of  men  and  women  can  look  back  to 
some  episode  in  their  earlier  years  that  changed  the 
current  of  all  their  lives  for  the  better  or  the  worse ! 
A  book  I  am  fond  of  re-reading  is  one  of  Cherbuliez' 
volumes,  "  Jean  Teterolle."  There  a  boy  is  thrashed 
unjustly  by  a  baron  who  employs  him  to  trim  his 
trees,  and  goes  out  into  the  world  with  the  one  idea 
of  some  day  returning  to  that  estate  and  buying  it 
for  himself,  and  so  lording  it  over  the  man  who  has 
insulted  him.  And  by  toiling  early  and  late,  by 
making  use  of  every  chance  to  rise  and  accumulate 
money,  he  does  fulfil  his  vow ;  and  lives  to  buy  in  the 
mortgaged  estate  and  triumph  over  the  baron's  son. 
Jean  is  not  an  ill  character,  but  so  rugged  and  rough 
that  the  effect  of  that  injustice  so  deeply  felt,  is 
manifest  through  all  his  after  career.  A  single  blow 
from  a  baron's  stick  changed  an  entire  life.  And  it 
is  true  to  nature.  People  seldom  choose  their  careers 


90        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

in  accordance  with  their  natural  abilities;  they  are 
swept  into  the  current  of  circumstances  by  some 
fortuitous  event.  But  those  who  do  choose,  who 
pursue  the  careers  they  are  best  fitted  for  have  that 
happiness  which  is  better  than  riches;  the  joy  of 
work  in  the  occupations  they  love. 

Wise  guardians  who  have  power  over  circumstances 
as  well  as  sagacity,  continually  open  up  to  children 
fresh  sources  of  knowledge,  so  that  after  becoming 
acquainted  with  many  different  kinds  of  action  they 
may  be  sure  of  finding  what  makes  a  genuine  appeal 
to  their  natures.  It  is  unfortunate  when  a  definite, 
decisive  choice  about  a  career  is  made  prematurely. 
For  the  taste  sticks.  Children  readily  become  nar- 
row in  their  views.  They  form  attachments  on  slight 
grounds,  and  the  fewer  attachments  one  has  the  more 
bigoted  he  grows. 

I  would  expand  the  child's  mind  by  showing  him 
from  time  to  time  scenes  from  all  sides  of  life.  Take 
him  to-day  to  studios  and  let  him  see  how  pictures 
are  made;  next  week  to  silk  factories,  to  learn  the 
poetry  of  labor,  and  afterward  to  a  brick-yard  and 
iron  foundry,  not  forgetting  the  claims  of  churches 
and  great  monuments  upon  an  elevating  education. 


CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION          91 

The  alternation  of  country  and  town  life  is  a  delight- 
ful stimulant,  and  each  season  has  its  appropriate  les- 
son. Actual  experience  is  worth  a  world  of  book  lore. 
It  is  not  particularly  interesting  to  a  child  to  read  in 
his  history  that  he  should  be  grateful  to  all  those  who 
supply  him  with  the  comforts  of  his  daily  life ;  to  the 
farmer,  the  baker,  the  manufacturer,  the  builder. 
But  when  he  sees  how  grain  grows  and  is  converted 
into  flour,  how  furniture  is  wrought  from  blocks  of 
wood,  and  threads  woven  into  cloth,  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  objects  about  him  is  revealed.  The  dif- 
ferent parts  of  life  become  connected  and  he  gets  a 
sense  of  the  thread  of  harmony  that  runs  through  all. 
We  debate  about  how  early  a  child's  education 
should  begin;  whether  telling  him  the  truth  about 
flowers  and  stones  and  the  stars  is  not  "  crowding 
his  mind  "  at  the  age  of  three  or  four.  But  the  time 
to  make  the  earth  interesting  to  him  is  that  instant, 
be  it  early  or  later,  that  he  begins  to  find  the  earth 
interesting.  My  little  girl,  at  four,  began  to  show  the 
liveliest  interest  in  the  sky,  and  besought  her  father 
to  talk  about  it  with  her.  As  he  was  an  accom- 
plished astronomer,  he  told  her  some  simple  little 
tales  that  stimulated  her  curiosity  so  much  that  each 


92        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION" 

night,  as  soon  as  the  darkness  settled  down,  she  would 
run  for  her  little  coat  and  hat  and  beseech  him  to  take 
her  up  to  the  roof  to  "  study  the  stars."  Such  a 
happy  occupation  could  not  possibly  militate  against 
the  health  of  any  child;  what  the  little  one  is  so 
drawn  toward  is  an  indication  that  the  study  should 
be  entered  upon ;  even  at  the  most  tender  age. 

There  is  not  half  so  much  danger  as  we  apprehend 
that  we  will  make  our  offspring  too  clever !  So  long 
as  the  little  one  seeks  knowledge  he  is  in  a  safe  way. 
It  is  when  he  believes  himself  competent  to  impart 
it  that  we  may  begin  to  be  uneasy!  And  the  best 
way  to  keep  our  ambitious  modern  children  level- 
headed is  to  permit  them  early  —  very  early  —  the 
companionship  of  cultivated  persons  whom  they  must 
recognize  as  their  superiors.  American  parents  are 
among  the  best  in  the  world  in  some  respects.  But 
in  respect  to  surrounding  their  children  from  the 
very  first  with  elevating  influences,  they  might  take 
a  hint  from  Philip,  King  of  Macedon,  who  said 
to  the.  wise  Aristotle,  "  I  wish  my  son  to  be  saved 
from  making  the  mistakes  I  have  made,  and  com- 
mitting the  follies  I  have  committed." 

In  every  child  is  the  germ  of  every  talent,  every 


CULTIVATING  OBSEKVATION          93 

power.  Why  do  some  develop  genius,  others  mania, 
and  others  grow  to  be  normal  beings?  Are  there 
other  influences  to  be  reckoned  with,  beside  heredity 
and  education  ?  There  must  be  reasons  for  the  varia- 
tions from  the  average  that  constantly  take  place,  and 
also,  for  the  peculiarities  persons  exhibit  unwillingly 
and  unconsciously.  All  of  us  are  moved  at  times  to 
acts  we  had  not  contemplated,  and  do  things  out  of 
our  plans  because  we  "  cannot  help  it."  What  gov- 
erns us  ? 

There  is  a  fate  in  habit;  not  only  in  our  own 
habits,  from  which  we  depart  daily,  but  in  the  habits 
of  our  forefathers.  Without  knowing  why,  we  are 
constantly  reverting  to  some  way  of  doing  things 
that  an  ancestor  practised;  and  so  the  pendulum  of 
progress  swings  backward  again,  and  the  world  only 
seems  to  go  forward  in  the  whirl  of  living.  It  is  a 
peculiar  thing  that  although  the  intellect  advances, 
that  part  of  us  that  governs  tastes  and  preferences 
changes  very  little.  People  of  advanced  ideas  some- 
times have  the  most  primitive  tastes.  The  most  intel- 
lectual man  is  drawn  to  an  unlettered  companion ;  the 
most  highly  cultured  woman  likes  to  "  steal  awhile 
away  "  from  all  her  up-lifting  pursuits  and  become 


94        THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

a  barbarian  again,  on  a  camping-out  tour  in  the  hills. 
But  if  we  take  the  pains  to  trace  out  the  why  of  these 
eccentric  longings  for  the  simpler  life,  we  may  often 
find  their  source  in  some  early  influence.  If  there  is 
a  fate  in  inheritance  there  is,  also,  a  fate  in  the  sur- 
roundings of  our  childhood  —  in  climate,  the  views 
near  home,  all  the  sights  and  sounds  that  nourished 
our  senses  in  infancy.  And  especially  do  the  recol- 
lections of  people  who  were  pleasant  to  us  in  those 
old  days  govern  our  sympathies.  This  woman  is  liked 
because  she  reminds  us  of  our  first  heroine ;  the  person 
whom  we  looked  up  to  with  infantile  awe*  This  man 
seems  familiar  and  agreeable,  for  we  knew  his  proto- 
type when  we  had  not  achieved  a  dozen  years,  and 
built  ourselves  upon  the  model  of  his  attractions.  The 
things  we  were  habituated  to  in  early  childhood  all  aid 
in  forming  our  tastes.  We  rarely  rise  much  higher 
than  the  best  suggestion  made  to  us  then.  Even 
though  other  ways  may  afterwards  be  chosen,  there 
remains  at  the  root  of  the  character  some  ineradicable 
preference.  The  old  person  who  has  lived  in  a  for- 
eign land  very  contentedly,  longs  to  return  to  his 
native  land  to  die.  The  world-worn  man  who  has 
achieved  success,  feels  some  day  the  over-mastering 


95 

impulse  to  go  "  back  to  the  old  home  "  and  be  sur- 
rounded once  more  with  all  the  simple  things  he  loved 
as  a  boy.  Do  our  early  preferences  then,  ever  pass 
away  ? 

I  believe  that  what  is  called  individuality  comes 
about  largely  through  the  action  of  environment  upon 
natural  susceptibilities.  There  is  a  force  in  circum- 
stances that  nobody  can  resist;  it  exerts  an  influence 
along  the  line  of  least  resistance  in  the  character. 
Ko  one  is  absolutely  callous  to  his  surroundings,  but 
sensitive  natures  are  wonderfully  under  their  influ- 
ence. Let  us  not  say  that  the  shrinkings  or  prefer- 
ences of  young  children  are  causeless  whimsies.  It 
is  a  certain  indication  of  a  strong,  positive  nature 
when  a  taste  that  has  been  persistently  discouraged 
to-day  crops  out  again  to-morrow.  Observe  and  re- 
spect such  manifestations  in  a  child. 

A  mother  should  distinguish  between  fear  and  aver- 
sion in  her  child.  The  one  may  be  simply  momen- 
tary fright,  and  be  reasoned  away ;  but  the  other  pro- 
ceeds from  some  innate  distaste  that  it  may  not  be 
wise  to  attempt  to  conquer.  Sensitiveness  to  im- 
pressions is  a  talent;  do  not  try  to  dull  susceptibili- 
ties that  may  be  a  splendid  educative  force.  The 


96        THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

capacity  to  take  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  from  a 
beautiful  environment,  or  be  annoyed  by  some  ugly 
feature  of  the  landscape  shows  that  the  nature  is 
artistic.  There  is  a  morality  in  landscapes  that  may 
awaken  in  us  dispositions  toward  evil  or  good.  Haw- 
thorne, himself  the  most  susceptible  of  mortals,  bore 
testimony  to  the  shaping  hand  of  destiny  through 
environment  in  his  story  of  "  The  Great  Stone  Face." 
Ideal  as  it  is,  the  incident  is  not  impossible.  We 
grow  to  resemble  even  outwardly,  what  we  love ;  and 
alas !  by  some  terrible  fascination  we  come  to  resemble 
what  we  hate  if  we  are  forced  into  daily  contact  with 
it.  Through  the  very  antagonism  it  excites  in  us  un- 
lovely feelings  are  aroused. 

The  preferences  and  prejudices  of  childhood  are 
strong  and  intense  because  the  young  person  is  more 
emotional  than  intellectual.  His  tastes  grow  out  of 
his  loves  and  hates;  not  out  of  deliberate  choice  of 
what  is  good  over  what. is  evil.  And  his  early  tastes 
are  to  govern  him  all  his  life. 

Now,  how  is  it  possible  to  guide  our  child  wisely, 
toward  what  is  estimable,  and  away  from  that  which 
makes  for  ill  ?  I  think  there  is  but  one  way :  to  edu- 
cate him  in  the  faculty  of  discrimination.  If  we 


CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION          97 

continually  choose  for  a  child  what  he  is  to  like  and 
what  he  is  to  do,  he  becomes  a  mere  tool  in  our  hands, 
his  natural  inclinations  covered  and  all  the  power  in 
him  for  good  or  ill  merely  dormant,  to  break  forth 
unexpectedly,  perhaps  to  his  undoing,  when  he  is 
thrown  on  his  own  resources. 

But  the  child  who  is  trained  early  in  life  to  see 
things  as  they  are  becomes  "  as  a  god,  knowing  good 
and  evil."  The  capacity  to  see  was  considered  by 
Ruskin  as  the  most  important  faculty  there  is.  And 
he  also  pronounced  it  the  rarest.  Most  people  go 
through  the  world  in  entire  disregard  of  details ;  they 
"  did  not  notice  "  what  they  passed  by,  because  their 
senses  were  heedless.  They  are  incapable  of  forming 
a  judgment  of  certain  events  because  they  gained  only 
a  cursory  view  of  its  most  prominent  features.  If 
they  travel  they  look  at  rivers  and  mountains  without 
curiosity  and  admire  or  deprecate  by  rote,  following 
their  guide-book.  Half  the  beauties  of  the  world  are 
a  closed  book  to  them  because  the  capacity  of  appre- 
ciation has  never  been  developed,  and  they  remain  to 
the  end  of  their  days  like  children  whose  eyes  and 
ears  are  defective. 

Nothing  more  clearly  shows  a  trained  mind  than 


98 

the  ability  to  make  a  swift,  unerring  choice  of  valu- 
able things  out  of  a  mass  of  worthless  ones.  But  it 
is  a  capacity  demanding  long  and  earnest  cultivation 
before  it  reaches  perfection.  The  training  of  it  must 
be  begun  very  early ;  even  in  infancy.  Since  all  liv- 
ing is  merely  an  instinctive  repetition  of  a  once 
learned  act  of  estimating  values,  the  earlier  the 
power  to  make  such  an  estimation  can  be  established 
the  sooner  the  person  will  be  of  use  to  himself.  "  I 
guess  you'll  never  buy  wooden  nutmegs,"  contentedly 
said  a  proud  grandfather  to  a  little  girl  whose  nice 
instinct  had  decided  that  a  certain  young  man  was 
not  a  gentleman.  "  That  child  will  make  a  lawyer 
some  day,"  observed  a  judge  of  a  small  boy  who  saw 
through  some  artful  tangle  of  words  that  had  been 
strung  out  to  puzzle  him.  Shrewdness  in  the  young 
always  tickles  the  fancy  of  guardians,  and  they  praise 
the  wit  of  children  who  are  not  to  be  beguiled.  But 
how  merciless  they  are  toward  those  not  so  happily 
gifted  by  nature!  Yet  with  some  pains  almost  all 
children  could  become  quick  of  perception.  They 
must  be  taught  to  observe  details,  and  not  pass  by 
everything  with  a  superficial  look. 

"  Which  one  of  us  will  see  the  larger  number  of 


CULTIVATING  OBSERVATION          99 

different  things  on  this  walk  ?  "  the  wise  mother  will 
ask,  on  starting  out  on  the  country  ramble.  And  the 
child  thus  stimulated  will  in  all  probability  soon  be- 
come expert  enough  to  rival  herself  in  his  descrip- 
tions. Merely  answering  questions,  without  leading 
up  to  a  knowledge  of  the  whys  and  wherefores,  is  of 
little  use.  All  questions  should  receive  considera- 
tion, but  many  of  them  may  be  dismissed  with  a 
word,  while  others  require  exhaustive  analysis.  A 
very  good  plan  is  to  stimulate  the  child  with  some 
little  reward  to  accumulate  as  many  facts  as  he  can 
about  what  he  happens  to  be  interested  in  at  the  time. 
Let  his  aroused  curiosity  be  the  guide  for  the  exer- 
cise. It  matters  little  what  the  thing  is  he  studies, 
so  he  studies  it  thoroughly.  Of  all  things  thorough- 
ness is  the  one  most  important.  Montaigne  believed 
that  the  object  of  education  was  to  fill  a  boy  or  girl 
"  with  an  honest  curiosity  for  information  about 
everything."  We  are  at  last  coming  to  understand 
that  any  kind  of  knowledge  that  the  child  cares  noth- 
ing about  and  that  he  acquires  against  his  will  is  of 
comparatively  small  profit  to  him.  The  great  success 
in  teaching  is  to  stimulate  in  the  pupil  a  wish  to  learn. 


CHAPTER  VII 

IMAGINATION  PLAYS 

"  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  visualizing  faculty 
admits  of  being  largely  developed  by  education." —  GALTON. 

THE  remark  quoted  above  is  to  be  received 
with  a  good  deal  of  qualification.  The  best 
education  that  can  be  afforded  the  faculty 
of  constructing  mental  images, —  and  upon  this  fac- 
ulty depends  much  more  of  our  practical  power  than 
is  generally  known  —  is  that  of  self -training.  There 
is  danger  of  a  teacher  meddling  too  much  rather  than 
giving  too  little  help  in  this  direction.  In  the  ear- 
lier years  a  child  should  be  left  a  great  deal  to  his 
own  untrammeled  efforts  in  the  way  of  building  up 
out  of  his  memories  certain  new  combinations  that 
take  the  form  with  him  of  fanciful  plays.  Having 
been  taught  to  observe  closely,  and  to  recall  easily  the 
details  of  what  he  has  seen,  he  may  be  left  alone,  in 
great  measure,  to  work  out  those  ideas  which  are 

100 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  101 

insistent  and  stimulating  in  the  healthy  young  mind. 
A  kindergarten  training  is  an  excellent  beginning  for 
the  after  home  education,  especially  as  it  accustoms 
the  child  very  early  to  ideas  of  community  life. 
But  when  he  is  withdrawn  from  kindergarten  and 
the  mother  seriously  takes  his  home  education  in  her 
own  hands,  she  may  safely  leave  him  alone  to  ponder 
over  the  things  he  has  learned  about  plays  with  his 
kindergarten  teacher,  and  watch  how  he  reconstructs, 
out  of  old  material,  new  pastimes  that  mean  important 
things  to  him. 

It  has  been  ascertained  that  language  is  not  neces- 
sary to  thinking ;  that  much  of  our  thinking  goes  on 
without  the  aid  of  words,  the  brain  acting  sub-con- 
sciously, using  some  material  less  concrete  than  lan- 
guage as  we  know  it.  A  kind  of  language  there  must 
be,  but  we  do  not  yet  know  in  what  it  consists.  The 
little  child  reasons,  imagines,  and  even  argues  with 
himself,  in  a  sort  of  dumb  show,  before  he  has  ac- 
quired a  vocabulary.  His  acts  indicate  that  certain 
mental  processes  have  preceded  them  that  he  would  be 
puzzled  to  explain.  When  long  chains  of  thinking  are 
carried  on  doubtless  words  are  necessary.  I  recollect 
a  period  in  my  childhood  when  I  always  whispered  to 


102       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

myself  a  correlating  narrative  with  what  I  was  doing. 
The  sound  of  the  words  in  my  own  ear  seemed  to  be 
an  essential  to  the  pleasure  of  the  actions  being  car- 
ried on.  The  little  dramatic  plays  enacted  with 
paper  dolls  thus  had  a  kind  of  vocal  accompaniment 
that  made  the  plays  much  more  real  to  me.  But  ob- 
servation of  other  children  has  led  me  to  suppose  that 
few  children  converse  with  themselves  during  their 
actual  playing.  The  mere  acting  out  of  their  fancies 
is  sufficient.  People  differ  a  good  deal  in  respect  to 
attachment  to  words;  some  being  able  to  act  even  in 
important  things,  in  a  kind  of  dumb  show,  while  those 
who  possess  natural  fluency  feel  a  running  commen- 
tary in  their  minds  about  what  they  see  and  partici- 
pate in.  But  every  normally  constituted  child  is 
capable  of  some  sort  of  constructive  activity  in  the 
way  of  making  up  plays ;  and  in  this  manner  he  gets 
a  valuable  kind  of  self-training. 

An  active,  healthy  imagination  is  one  of  the  hap- 
piest gifts  a  child  can  possess.  If  we  watch  an  in- 
telligent child  of  four  or  five  years,  who  believes  him- 
self unnoticed,  we  will  probably  be  astonished  at  the 
richness  and  fertility  of  fancy  which  can  give  life  and 
color  to  dull,  commonplace  things,  and  weave  whole 


< 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  103 

stories  and  dramas  around  the  simple  toy  that  means 
nothing  more  to  us  than  what  it  plainly  stands  for. 
But  we  will  perceive  that  even  his  wildest  romances 
found  themselves  upon  facts,  for  free  and  frolicsome 
as  imagination  may  appear  it  is  subject  to  its  laws. 
It  deals  with  real  things  in  a  playful  way ;  it  embroid- 
ers, paints,  molds,  but  it  must  have  its  materials ;  its 
basis  is  actual  life.  What  we  call  creative  ability  is 
really  nothing  but  the  power  to  reconstruct,  perhaps 
to  connect  several  plans  or  patterns  into  a  whole  which 
seems  different  from  the  original. 

The  child  is  an  irresponsible  artist  who  daubs 
on  his  color  boldly,  without  much  sense  of  the  ab- 
surdities he  commits,  and  so  he  often  produces  effects 
that  surprise  others  as  well  as  himself.  Many  of  the 
acts  that  seem  so  precocious  because  we  suppose  them 
to  be  the  outcome  of  a  well-considered  plan  are  really 
happy  accidents;  not  devoid  of  the  merit  of  origi- 
nality, but  neither  to  be  over-praised  as  works  of  gen- 
ius. Childhood  is  one  unbroken  series  of  experiment- 
ings,  and  if  significant  results  are  frequent  it  is  be- 
cause so  many  different  things  are  attempted.  The 
child  who  is  so  fortunate  as  to  be  left  to  Nature  for 
the  first  dozen  years  of  his  life,  and  not  forced  out 


104:      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

of  his  normal  development  by  wrong  training,  while 
getting  such  education  as  he  puts  forth  voluntary 
efforts  for,  has  the  best  chance  of  acquiring  rich- 
ness of  fancy  and  power  of  accurate  visualization. 
His  ideas  are  not  then  distorted  by  the  endeavor  to 
make  them  conform  to  standards  that  are  often  arti- 
ficial. If  he  has  at  hand  a  cultured  friend  to  answer 
his  questions  and  opportunities  to  gain  every  sort  of 
knowledge  he  needs  from  actual  experience  his  de- 
velopment will  probably  be  so  far  in  advance  of  that 
of  ordinary  children  that  he  will  pass  for  a  genius 
among  them.  The  majority  of  children  are  made 
dull,  especially  in  respect  to  the  higher  faculties,  by 
the  zeal  of  their  educators. 

Over-training  and  undue  restraints  cripple  the  nat- 
ural grace  of  the  imagination,  although,  on  the  other 
hand,  proper  education  aids  its  development.  The 
very  best  is  a  wide  experience.  The  little  one  who 
has  the  felicity  to  associate  with  people  of  broad  cul- 
ture, who  is  taken  about,  on  proper  occasions,  and 
hears  and  sees  many  new  things,  becomes  enriched  and 
self-confident,  while  the  children  of  the  very  poor, 
who  know  almost  no  variety  in  a  squalid  existence, 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  105 

must  use  over  and  over  again  in  their  plays,  the  lim- 
ited knowledge  belonging  to  them. 

The  mental  limitations  of  the  average  school  child 
are  not  sufficiently  considered.  The  other  day  I  hap- 
pened to  pass  a  recreation  ground  belonging  to  a 
large  public  school,  where  a  troup  of  kindergarten 
children  were  going  through  a  game  that  should  be 
accompanied  by  music.  The  circle  consisted  of  chil- 
dren far  above  the  average  in  looks,  evidently  belong- 
ing to  the  class  that  has  the  privileges  of  opportunity. 
But  the  listlessness,  the  dulness  and  lack  of  interest 
apparent  through  the  little  circle  showed  the  perfunc- 
tory nature  of  this  educative  game ;  the  teacher  herself 
looked  bored  to  extinction,  and  not  a  single  child 
showed  any  of  the  liveliness  that  one  would  suppose 
natural  to  the  occasion.  It  was  merely  a  drill;  as  are 
most  of  such  exercises  in  public  schools;  and  must 
have  left  the  effect  of  penalty  rather  than  of  pleasure 
on  the  participants  in  it  Systematized  plays  have 
this  disadvantage ;  that  they  require  unusual  tact,  ex- 
perience and  originality  in  the  leader  or  teacher.  It 
is  far  better  for  the  child  to  be  left  free  to  work  out 
its  instinctive  ideas  of  frolic  unaided  than  that  he 


106      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

should  be  fettered  in  the  free  exercise  of  his  fancy  by 
the  obligation  of  drill.  If  these  plays  have  a  subtle 
meaning,  if  they  are  really  work  then  why  not  call 
them  work  ?  A  natural  child  is  not  averse  to  work ; 
I  think  that  honest  effort  is  by  no  means  repugnant  to 
him,  but  he  does  resent  being  beguiled  into  calling 
work  play,  and  having  his  amusements  made  so  tame 
that  they  might  as  well  be  left  out,  for  all  the  pleasure 
he  takes  in  them. 

It  is  instructive  to  observe  the  difference  between 
the  child  who  has  been  gently  trained  and  the  one  who 
has  been  over-restrained  in  plays  with  dolls.  The 
one  is  all  tenderness  and  solicitude,  the  other  harsh 
and  hard  in  her  imaginary  maternity.  She  knocks 
her  senseless  infant  about  in  a  way  that  bodes  ill  for 
her  future  real  offspring,  since  the  little  girl  is  mother 
to  the  woman,  and  the  spontaneous  acts  of  childhood 
forecast  what  independent  life  will  become. 

Yet  poverty  and  wealth  are  of  themselves  power- 
less to  curb  the  imaginative  faculties.  One  may  be 
surrounded  by  the  most  beautiful  objects  and  have 
everything  to  gratify  the  taste  and  fancy,  yet  remain 
unbenefited  by  these  means  of  education.  Many 
children  being  reared  in  luxurious  homes  are  listless 


I 


IMAGINATION  FLAYS  107 

and  indifferent  instead  of  being  bright  and  interested 
in  their  surroundings,  because  the  one  vital  spark  es- 
sential to  the  quickening  of  their  whole  natures  is 
denied  them.  They  have  no  companion  who  is  ca- 
pable of  uplifting  them.  Their  intimate  companions 
are  ignorant  nurses,  who  deal  in  suppression  instead 
of  suggestion.  No  wonder  that  the  dear  little  child 
seated  in  the  corner  of  its  beautiful  nursery,  with 
this  censor  and  hard  critic  of  the  ideal  ever  present, 
feels  no  inspiration  to  create  a  wonder-working  world 
out  of  its  abundant  material.  If  the  divine  fire  kin- 
dles in  its  heart  it  shyly  stifles  betraying  signs,  and 
whispers  to  itself  the  fancies  and  ideas  that  would  in- 
evitably be  ridiculed  if  revealed. 

Happy  that  little  one  who,  even  with  a  poor  home, 
has  a  sympathetic,  companionable  mother;  who  is 
patient  with  his  whimsies,  and  helpful  in  carrying 
out  the  perpetual  little  plans  and  wishes  that  are 
suggested  to  him  by  his  observation  of  what  is  going 
on  about  him. 

In  everything  concerning  the  welfare  of  the  child 
we  must  go  back  to  the  mother.  She  not  only  endows 
the  child  with  her  own  emotional  nature  but  she  makes 
the  home  atmosphere  in  which  what  is  best  in  him 


108      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

will  wither  or  come  to  perfection.  With  the  right 
home  atmosphere  and  a  loving  mother  the  natural  at- 
titude of  the  child  is  that  of  spontaneous,  continual 
activity,  mental  as  well  as  physical.  His  mind  re- 
ceives and  stores  up  an  incredible  number  of  impres- 
sions every  day,  and  as  he  lives  out  in  his  plays  what 
he  perceives,  his  education  is  gained  as  rapidly  as  un- 
consciously, upon  the  firm  and  rational  basis  of  ex- 
perimenting. 

Now  the  direction  of  his  experimentings  will  pro- 
ceed from  the  kind  of  life  led  about  him.  If  his 
parents  happen  to  be  interested  in  commercial  pursuits 
and  a  boy  hears  frequent  talk  about  "  stock  markets," 
banks,  or  marketable  goods,  in  all  probability  his  plays 
will  take  the  trend  toward  commerce.  He  will  "  play 
store  "  and  learn  to  calculate  and  bargain.  Thoughts 
about  merchandize  are  his  counters  and  he  makes  up 
games  to  suit.  This  is  not  saying  that  his  tastes  will 
ultimately  be  colored  by  his  childish  plays,  but  merely 
that  his  self-training  will  be  so  colored.  From  too 
much  familiarity  he  may  even  weary  of  what  en- 
grosses him  so  early,  yet  some  residuum  may  remain 
to  influence  him  in  some  way,  in  maturity.  The 
artist's  child  takes  as  naturally  to  the  tracing  of  his 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  109 

fancies  on  paper  as  the  acrobat's  offspring  to  originat- 
ing new  modes  of  tumbling;  the  little  one  who  has 
been  taken  often  to  the  theater  goes  off  privately  to 
rehearse  some  imaginary  drama  that  has  been  ingen- 
iously designed  from  bits  of  remembered  scenes. 

Once  I  discovered  a  child  of  a  friend  with  whom 
I  was  stopping,  sobbing  and  going  on  in  a  sort  of  happy 
hysterical  frenzy,  all  by  herself  in  the  attic.  Tact- 
fully questioned  she  confessed  to  carrying  on  there  a 
sort  of  emotional  performance,  pieced  out  from  her 
little  experiences  at  shows,  and  once  embarked  she 
eagerly  went  through  for  my  benefit  a  miniature 
tragedy  that  was  not  without  interest  and  climax. 
Talent  for  acting  had  shown  itself  in  several  members 
of  this  family,  and  the  child  in  question  went  through 
in  her  'teens,  that  craze  for  the  stage  which  attacks 
many  bright  and  versatile  girls.  However,  she  out- 
lived it  and  became  a  most  practical  housewife  after 
an  early  marriage. 

In  the  household  of  an  editorial  friend  a  tot  of  four 
was  found  privately  accumulating  stacks  of  paper  and 
big  envelopes,  which  she  frankly  stated  were  "  manu- 
sc'its  "  she  was  going  to  take  to  a  publisher.  "  I'm 
going  to  write  a  book  and  sell  it  and  then  write  an- 


• 


110      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

other  book,  and  the  publisher  will  say, —  Mis' 
Ketcham,  we  want  as  many  books  as  you  can  write, 
—  and  I'll  write  him  a  lib'ry  full  of  them !  "  It  may 
not  be  amiss  to  say  that  this  little  one  also,  outgrew 
the  spell  of  propinquity,  and  took  to  other  occupations 
when  she  grew  up. 

The  delicate  tyranny  of  the  higher  faculties  is,  how- 
ever, as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  craving  of 
deprived  bodily  functions.  The  child  of  poor  parents 
who  is  necessarily  stinted  in  luxuries,  is  impelled  to 
enjoy  in  plays  the  fleshly  delights  he  sees  from  afar 
and  envies.  Nothing  charms  a  meager  little  child 
whose  daily  food  is  of  the  commonest  quality,  than 
to  depict  to  herself,  as  well  as  she  can,  a  splendid 
mansion  where  servants  constantly  minister  to  the 
palate.  Barmecide  feasts  they  are,  that  make  the 
poor  infant's  mouth  water  and  her  starved  appetite  to 
grow  beyond  bounds.  But  for  the  time  being  her  vi- 
sions take  her  out  of  the  suffering  present  into  a  fairy- 
land of  pleasure.  It  is  the  best  thing  she  knows. 

Dickens,  the  child-lover,  never  showed  a  more  acute 
knowledge  of  the  action  of  the  infant  mind  than  when 
he  told  how  the  "  marshioness  "  buried  in  her  dark 
cellar,  kept  herself  alive  by  "  making  believe."  The 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  111 

delicious  punch  made  from  bits  of  orange  peel  com- 
forted a  soul  that  longed  for  luxuries  as  well  as  a 
thirsty  body  that  must  drink  even  wash  to  keep  itself 
from  painful  sensations.  Sometimes  the  sole  allevia- 
tion to  unpleasant  circumstances,  when  he  is  misun- 
derstood and  under-rated,  is  a  little  one's  power  to 
imagine  himself  in  happier  surroundings.  A  too  ac- 
tive imagination  is  not  always  a  desirable  faculty; 
but  the  best  off-set  to  it  is  the  cheerful  companionship 
of  nice  children.  An  introspective  little  one  would 
best  not  be  left  too  much  alone.  But  we  must  re- 
member that  sensitiveness  goes  with  imagination  and 
that  a  child  ought  not  to  be  laughed  at  nor  be  sub- 
jected to  the  society  of  those  who  will  be  rough  with 
his  fancies  and  "  make-believes."  What  are  adult 
ambitions  but  an  extension  of  these  "  make-believes  " 
of  childhood ! 

If  the  child  is  to  get  all  the  benefits  that  come  from 
an  unfettered  use  of  the  imagination  grown  people 
must  refrain  from  teaching  him  too  early.  Refrain 
that  is,  from  imposing  upon  him  their  own  cut-and- 
dried  formulas.  Their  part  is  merely  to  suggest,  his 
own  to  carry  out. 

Suggestions    are    indispensable.     They    are    the 


112      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

torches  that  light  up  his  path,  the  stones  from  which 
he  constructs  his  temple.  Suggestions  may  be  con- 
veyed in  song,  in  conversation,  in  story ;  but  they  are 
most  effectually  conveyed  in  example.  The  little  one 
who  lives  with  his  parents  and  sees  mingled  with  their 
daily  commonplace  acts  something  of  higher  thought 
and  feeling,  will  quickly  seize  that  invisible  charm 
and  become  imbued  with  its  spirit.  Even  in  his  most 
trifling  acts  you  will  find  larger  motives  than  ever  stir 
the  child  whose  moral  nature  is  only  subject  to  the 
development  of  an  intentional  discipline.  When  he 
builds  houses  or  cars  or  ships  they  will  not  be  only 
for  himself,  but  for  those  he  loves ;  his  pleasure  will 
consist  to  some  extent  in  doing  things  for  others. 

I  know  this  from  personal  experience.  I  have  seen 
in  one  family  a  tot  of  three  years  who  is  perpetually 
engaged  in  some  occupation  that  involves  the  happi- 
ness of  her  entire  family.  She  is  by  no  means  spirit- 
uelle,  but  a  healthy,  happy,  romping  little  creature 
whose  experiments  with  things  might  be  called  "  mis- 
chief "  by  uncomprehending  people.  Yet  they  mean 
much  to  her,  and  her  friends,  who  love  her  well,  and 
watch  her  with  interest,  tread  softly  amongst  the  as- 
tonishing disorder  she  makes,  lest  they  should  over- 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  113 

turn  some  arrangement  that  is  beautiful  and  harmo- 
nious in  her  eyes.  As  she  is  perfectly  unrestrained 
and  confidential  with  every  one,  she  explains  her 
plans  and  acts  as  she  goes  on.  This  pile  of  dominoes 
that  obstruct  the  doorway  is  a  cake  she  is  "  baking 
for  papa  " ;  this  piece  of  paper  on  a  chair  is  a  pattern 
by  which  she  intends  to  cut  mamma  a  dress ;  and  the 
books  surrounding  her  piano  turn  into  a  horse  and 
carriage,  in  which  she  is  about  to  take  the  entire 
family  for  a  drive ! 

It  is  unusual  for  games  which  come  strictly  under 
the  head  of  "  imagination  plays  "  to  be  engaged  in  be- 
fore a  child  is  four  or  five  years  of  age.  But  in 
families  where  children  are  the  frequent  companions 
of  grown  people  their  strong  propensity  for  imita- 
tion will  often  lead  to  an  earlier  ripening  of  their 
dramatic  powers.  Nor  is  it  undesirable  that  this 
should  be  so.  Play  is  the  natural  outlet  for  a  child's 
thoughts,  and  dramatic  plays  are  the  earliest  develop- 
ment of  a  man's  natural  ideas.  To  restrain  these 
movements  is  to  drive  back  the  child's  living  fancies 
into  the  recesses  of  his  mind,  and  bring  about  con- 
fusion and  unhappiness.  Some  children  who  are 
forced  to  be  still  and  passive  when  they  are  longing 


to  have  relief  in  action,  find  outlet  in  whispering  over 
stories  to  themselves ;  but  it  is  an  unsatisfactory  sub- 
stitute for  dramatic  action.  And  it  is  also,  morally 
injurious,  for  the  necessity  of  concealing  one's  ideas 
presently  destroys  the  ability  for  fluent  expression 
and  brings  about  timidity  and  distrust  of  our  friends. 

The  natural  instinct  of  a  child  is  to  draw  his  fam- 
ily into  his  plays,  and  until  he  is  rebuffed  and  thrown 
back  upon  himself  he  greatly  prefers  companionship  to 
solitude.  Development  takes  place  in  the  right  way 
when  a  young  child  thinks,  talks  and  acts,  all  at  the 
same  time.  It  is  then,  highly  beneficial  to  him  to 
feel  perfect  freedom  when  he  plays,  and  to  go  to  the 
limit  of  his  impulses,  in  order  to  experience  the 
proper  reaction. 

In  a  healthy,  happy  child  the  impulse  for  play  will 
come  whenever  play  is  the  appropriate  outlet  for  his 
energy.  The  ideal  of  life  is  that  desire  should  al- 
ways precede  action.  Among  unspoiled  children  it 
does.  Little  is  gained  by  urging  a  child  "  to  go  and 
play."  The  suggestion  may  relieve  us  of  a  temporary 
burden  in  the  matter  of  entertaining  him,  but  like 
all  temporary  reliefs  it  entails  future  trouble.  If  our 
little  one  leaves  his  toys  and  sidles  up  against  his 


IMAGINATION  PLAYS  115 

mother  in  that  fretful  way  which  is  so  trying,  he  ought 
not  to  be  repulsed.  It  means  that  his  own  small  re- 
sources are  exhausted,  and  that  he  needs  a  change  of 
scene,  a  new  fund  of  ideas  or  else  the  refreshment 
of  rest  and  soothing  from  mother-love  and  patience. 
Periods  of  dulness  and  depression  come  to  us  all; 
but  they  should  rarely  come  to  a  child.  Nature  is 
his  proper  guide,  and  herein  is  the  advantage  of  the 
home  nursery  over  which  a  wise  mother  presides,  over 
any  educational  institution.  She  will  let  the  child 
choose  his  own  plays  and  carry  out  his  own  little 
plans,  aiding  and  advising  but  not  interfering. 


"  True  wisdom  is  only  an  interpretation  of  nature.  In 
nature  is  found  all  primary  ideas,  the  principles  upon 
which  all  knowledge  depends,  and  the  models  for  all  the 
arts." —  MARCEL. 

I  HOPE  this  chapter  heading  does  not  instantly 
conjure  up  before  the  mother  a  vision  of  tire- 
some botany  lessons.  It  is  a  peculiar  fact  that 
genuine  love  of  Mature  is  rare  among  women,  while 
there  is  in  almost  every  one  of  them  a  warm  and  deep 
sentiment  for  the  beautiful  in  art.  Perhaps  it  is  be- 
cause their  initiation  into  the  fields  of  science  is  as  yet 
a  novel  thing,  and  they  look  upon  acquaintance  with 
science,  even  in  the  simpler  forms,  as  task-work.  But 
Nature  is  simply  reality ;  that  which  is  about  us  from 
the  first  to  the  last  moment  of  life,  and  the  mind 
which  contemplates  a  single  fluttering  leaf  with  an 
eye  to  its  qualities  approaches  her  inscrutable  enigmas. 

Agassiz  said  modestly,  that  in  a  whole  life-time  of 

1J6 


NATURE  STUDIES  117 

study  he  had  only  found  out  one  fact;  that  one  re- 
lating to  the  correspondence  between  the  succession 
of  fishes  in  geological  time  and  the  different  stages  of 
their  growth  in  the  egg.  This  was  all.  But  it  was  a 
mighty  fact.  And  what  a  happy,  fruitful  life  he 
passed!  Nothing  to  him  were  all  the  frets  of  hur- 
rying civilization,  all  the  envyings,  the  emulations, 
the  worries  of  man's  ambitious  struggle ;  he  was  with- 
drawn from  them  through  an  absorption  in  the  eternal 
verities.  And  he  lived  to  be  very  old. 

That  shrewd  observer,  Samuel  Smiles,  notes  the 
fact  that  natural  history  studies  have  a  peculiarly 
calming  effect  on  the  mind.  Naturalists  usually  live 
to  a  great  age  and  are  remarkable  for  their  insensibil- 
ity to  the  ordinary  tribulations  and  trials  of  life.  We 
may  deduce  thence  a  good  lesson  for  our  children: 
Avean  them  from  pettiness  by  turning  their  attention 
to  interesting  natural  objects.  If  they  are  scolding 
the  rain  that  breaks  up  some  plan,  show  them  the 
beauty  of  a  rain-drop,  poised  on  a  blade  of  grass  on 
the  plot  beneath  the  window.  If  they  shrink  from 
a  horned  caterpillar,  make  them  look  at  it  closely 
enough  to  see  the  singular  tips,  the  curious  colors, 
the  remarkable  flexibility  of  its  waving  appendages. 


118      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

If  after  a  little  scrutiny  the  timid  child  boldly  takes 
the  thing  in  his  fingers,  try  to  conceal  your  own  aver- 
sion, if  you  have  one,  and  be  as  diplomatic  in  your  ad- 
miration as  you  would  be  with  a  friend  who  told  a 
doubtful  story  at  your  dinner  table.  We  all  have  to 
"  smile  and  smile  and  be  a  villain  still "  when  it 
comes  to  hiding  natural  sentiments  on  occasion. 

I  acknowledge  that  instinctively  I  have  an  aversion 
to  all  creeping  things.  My  spontaneous  interest  in 
biology  begins  with  the  four-footed  beast.  But  when 
it  was  necessary,  in  view  of  the  welfare  of  children 
that  I  should  have  a  lively  and  absorbing  interest  in 
"  bugs  "  I  cultivated  one.  However,  at  this  epoch,  I 
found  it  a  wise  policy  to  accept  the  suggestion  of  a 
broad-minded  educator  who  said  that  often  there  is 
some  one  near  at  hand  who  knows  thoroughly  the 
subject  it  is  now  desirable  for  the  child  to  learn,  while 
even  our  most  earnest  efforts  can  only  make  us  medi- 
ocre teachers  in  it ;  so  we  should  call  upon  the  natural 
teacher  to  help  us  out. 

When  in  the  course  of  events  it  became  necessary 
to  have  at  hand  an  enthusiastic  naturalist  to  help 
along  the  education  of  my  children,  I  looked  about 
and  found  a  young  girl  who  possessed  a  genuine  love 


NATURE  STUDIES  119 

for  entomology  and  considerable  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  She  was  engaged  to  come  to  the  house  sev- 
eral times  each  week  and  "  play  with  grubs  and 
things  "  as  they  termed  it,  while  I  prudently  kept  to 
my  own  affairs.  Yet  it  was  essential  that  I  partici- 
pate to  some  extent  in  the  plays,  in  her  absence,  and 
a  little  tragedy  arose  from  my  conscientious  perform- 
ance of  the  duty.  A  cocoon  had  been  imported  by 
the  young  teacher,  to  be  kept  until  the  grub  should 
eat  his  way  to  the  light.  A  charming  butterfly  was 
to  then  appear  upon  the  scene.  I  was  besieged  with 
enquiries  as  to  the  progress  of  this  transformation, 
and  the  children  showed  something  of  the  spirit  of 
the  amateur  gardener  who  digs  up  his  seeds  to  find 
out  if  they  are  sprouting;  they  must  continually  in- 
vestigate the  cocoon.  Whether  these  zealous  efforts 
interfered  with  the  natural  development  of  the  grub 
or  whether  it  was  from  some  innate  propensity,  a  per- 
vert, I  do  not  know ;  but  one  morning  as  we  were  look- 
ing at  it  the  outer  cuticle  slowly  dissolved  before  our 
eyes  and  an  ugly,  misshapen  creature,  of  about  five 
times  the  size  of  the  gentle  being  we  had  expected, 
emerged  and  fell  to  the  floor.  "  Why  don't  it  fly  ? 
Why  don't  it  fly  ?  "  cried  the  children ;  but  the  thing 


120       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

only  continued  to  drag  its  length  along  the  carpet  in 
such  an  ungraceful  fashion  that  I  could  not  help 
turning  my  eyes  away.  There  was  no  doubt  about 
it ;  we  had  a  monster  among  us !  In  the  end,  we  sum- 
moned the  maid,  who  disposed  of  it  by  means  of  a 
dust-pan  and  brush,  and  it  probably  finished  its  career 
in  the  back  yard.  But  the  instructor  on  "  bugs  " 
was  exceedingly  disappointed  next  day,  when  the  his- 
tory was  related  to  her,  and  contracted,  I  fear,  a 
contempt  for  the  group  that  could  not  tolerate  the 
caprice  of  Nature  in  sending  forth  a  departure  from 
the  ordinary  course  of  development.  Bug  monsters 
are  so  rare ! 

But  aside  from  the  technical  knowledge  of  ento- 
mology or  botany,  which  is  the  least  part  of  the 
subjects  after  all,  there  is  a  vast  field  for  the  mother 
in  the  way  of  Nature  studies,  and  one  which  no  one 
else  can  cultivate  so  well.  From  the  very  earliest 
time  she  should  accustom  her  children  to  the  wonder- 
ful plan  of  progression  in  all  the  manifestations  of 
life.  A  little  private  study  of  botany  will  equip  her 
with  enough  elementary  learning  to  enable  her  to  pilot 
her  pupils  through  the  business  of  analyzing  simple 
plants,  and  finding  out  their  families  and  their  gen- 


NATURE  STUDIES  121 

eral  structure.  Thence,  to  the  subtler  idea  of  the  un- 
folding of  family  relations  is  but  a  step;  but  how 
significant  a  step!  To  be  able  to  tell  your  child, 
simply,  without  any  shrinking  or  diffidence,  that  the 
germ  of  the  plant  you  are  holding  in  your  hand  is  an 
egg,  fertilized  by  pollen,  carried  by  an  accommodat- 
ing insect,  and  that  the  same  principle  of  develop- 
ment holds  throughout  all  creation,  is  to  do  away  for- 
ever with  the  false  nonsense  that  will  probably  be 
poured  into  his  ears  when  he  begins  to  associate  with 
the  children  with  whom  he  will  go  to  school.  That 
there  is  sex  in  plants,  that  they  marry  and  have  off- 
spring, that  all  the  process  of  such  child-bearing  is 
respectable,  not  only  in  the  lower  plants  but  in  the 
higher  species,  that  there  is  a  morality  in  Nature 
higher  and  finer  than  our  ignorance  generally  allows 
us  to  appreciate  —  what  a  splendid  lesson  is  there. 

As  a  means  of  awakening  in  the  mother  a  sincere 
interest  in  the  ways  of  plants,  and  of  arousing  genu- 
ine amusement  at  their  singularities,  I  heartily  recom- 
mend Grant  Allen's  "  Story  of  the  Plants."  It  is 
at  once  thoroughly  scientific  and  delightfully  dra- 
matic, and  is  more  entertaining  for  summer  reading 
than  the  average  summer  novel.  Besides  being  very 


122       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

brief.  With  it  as  a  guide  I  once  had  the  gratification 
of  inspiring  in  a  rather  dull  girl  of  eighteen,  during 
a  summer's  acquaintance,  a  most  remarkable  interest 
in  biology.  It  was  at  least  the  beginning  of  a  broader 
culture  than  she  had  ever  been  led  to  undertake. 

Younger  persons  will  need  to  have  more  elementary 
instruction,  and  of  an  oral  nature  altogether.  In- 
deed, the  more  a  mother  can  hide  the  text-book  and 
make  information  come  from  herself  at  first  hand,  the 
more  vivid  it  will  be  to  the  child.  She  should  "  get 
up  "  her  facts  privately,  and  spring  them  forth  on 
her  confiding  little  one  without  quotation  marks.  It 
is  a  justifiable  bit  of  acting,  for  if  ever  books  are 
unwelcome  —  and  they  often  are  —  they  are  out  of 
place  as  garden  litter.  Out  in  the  open,  with  grass, 
flowers  and  trees  around  "  Nature  studies  "  are  easy 
and  inevitable.  Every  instant  some  new  interest 
arises  spontaneously  and  one  has  only  to  respond  to 
the  invitation  to  be  entertained. 

A  wee  maiden  was  taking  a  country  walk  with 
her  father  and  chatting  upon  things  as  they  attracted 
her  attention,  when  she  suddenly  ended  a  rather  long 
pause  with  the  pensive  comment  — "  Eve'th'ing  is 
Nature  — 'cept  the  houses !  "  Which  childish  aphor- 


NATURE  STUDIES  123 

ism  contains  the  truth  in  a  nutshell.  Everything 
about  us  is  Nature  save  what  has  been  wrought  by  the 
hand  of  man.  Yet  there  is  a  cunning  art  in  Nature. 
The  ant's  estates,  the  bird's  nest,  the  bee's  cell,  are 
scarcely  less  complicated  or  artistic  than  the  Egyptian 
Pyramids  or  the  Panama  Canal.  The  intricate  struc- 
ture of  that  wonderful  thing,  the  Australian  pitcher 
plant,  which  eats  insects  and  sets  traps,  is  a  marvel  of 
art,  even  though  a  product  with  which  the  hand  of 
man  has  not  meddled.  To  trace  the  design  in  Na- 
ture is  something  that  makes  intelligent  children 
breathless  with  delight.  It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to 
teach  them  to  take  an  interest  in  the  natural  sciences ; 
it  is  there  all  ready  for  action.  The  bungling  of 
the  adult  teacher  too  often  destroys  this  instinctive 
attraction.  The  child  does  not  want  a  mediator  be- 
tween himself  and  the  objects  that  fascinate  him ;  he 
wants  to  handle,  taste,  investigate,  all  for  himself. 
Simple,  unalienated  children  are  as  close  to  the  great 
mother  as  the  mites  that  cluster  in  her  bosom  or  as  was 
primitive  man  before  he  began  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of 
houses.  Turn  a  child  loose  in  the  fields  or  woods  and 
he  riots  in  the  wealth  of  opportunity  offered  him. 
Every  instant  affords  some  new  fact  or  suggestion. 


124      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Yet  presently  he  wearies  of  experiments  which  amuse 
but  do  not  enlighten.  He  seeks  a  key  to  mysteries 
and  runs  to  his  mother  with  questions  and  prayers. 
His  need  is  his  parent's  opportunity.  Happy  for  both 
if  she  is  not  unprepared  to  help  him  out. 

Science  offers  the  principles  that  bind  facts  to- 
gether and  discover  for  us  the  great  why  of  natural 
wonders.  If  simply  to  know  facts  constituted  educa- 
tion the  country  child,  with  free  opportunity  to  be- 
come acquainted  with  the  plant  and  animal  world, 
would  be  much  better  versed  in  natural  history  than 
the  city  child,  restricted  to  cabinets  of  curiosities  and 
domestic  pets.  But  usually  their  knowledge  is  of  the 
merely  utilitarian  sort.  They  know  that  milk  comes 
from  the  cow  and  eggs  from  the  hen;  that  you  must 
plant  seeds  in  order  to  get  vegetables ;  and  also,  some- 
thing of  the  habits  of  their  woodland  neighbors  —  the 
birds  and  squirrels.  But  ask  one  of  them  why  the 
grape-vine  sends  forth  climbing  tendrils,  or  the  trap- 
door spider  conceals  her  nest  amid  foliage,  or  of  what 
use  is  the  sweet,  fragrant  pulp  surrounding  the  cherry 
or  peach  pit,  and  the  chances  are  that  to  your  ques- 
tions you  will  get  only  a  vacant  stare ;  to  the  last,  per- 
haps, the  muttered  reply, — "  Good  for  us  to  eat." 


NATURE  STUDIES  125 

They  never  think  of  the  tree,  the  selfish  small 
utilitarians!  Selfish  because  they  have  merely  been 
taught  to  look  at  everything  from  the  point  of  view 
of  its  usefulness  to  men.  Most  of  us  were  so  taught 
before  the  idea  became  general  that  Nature  takes  as 
much  care  of  her  feeblest  children  as  of  her  mightiest, 
and  that  she  devotes  all  her  energies  to  propagation, 
improvement  in  culture  being  merely  an  incident  — 
a  necessity  of  the  great  "  struggle  for  existence." 

A  few  general  principles  are  better  culture  for  the 
child  than  a  multitude  of  unrelated  facts.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  very  young  child  is  usually  capable  of 
grasping  a  great,  all-embracing  truth,  if  it  is  lucidly 
put  before  him.  It  is  not  the  principle  but  the  con- 
fusing medley  of  nomenclature  that  often  surrounds 
it  that  is  tiresome.  I  recollect  studying  for  a  very 
long  time  in  my  early  years,  a  series  of  volumes  on 
physics  that  were  well  written,  so  far  as  the  presenta- 
tion of  principles  went,  but  were  over-laden  with  that 
cumbersome  scientific  commentary  which  was  deemed 
necessary  in  those  days,  and  to  which  the  teacher  paid 
most  of  her  attention.  To  "  learn  by  heart "  many 
names,  was  learning  one's  lessons  well,  in  the  old  time 
school.  And  many  were  the  dullards  made  by  that 


system.  It  took  me  a  long  time  to  outgrow  the  dis- 
taste for  natural  science  caused  by  the  routine  instruc- 
tion of  my  conscientious,  narrow-minded  teachers. 
When,  in  the  course  of  a  voluntarily  undertaken 
course  of  reading,  I  came  across  Agassiz's  delightfully 
clear  relation  of  the  laws  of  biology  it  was  as  if  a 
light  shone  in  a  dark  place,  and  a  deserted  cavern 
was  rendered  habitable  to  thoughts. 

Instead  of  finding  children  bored  by  the  unfolding 
of  the  mysteries  of  life  I  have  frequently  been  sur- 
prised by  their  insatiate  thirst  for  knowledge  when 
it  is  presented  to  them  attractively.  It  is  true  that 
the  world  must  be  presented  to  them  as  a  drama,  where 
everything  is  alive  and  acting  a  part.  But  is  it  not 
so  ?  To  seeing  eyes  there  is  no  stillness  in  Nature, 
no  death,  only  everlasting  change.  It  is  a  dull  child 
who  cannot  be  brought  to  comprehend  this  law.  And 
in  so  doing  he  makes  greater  progress  than  if  he 
learned  the  names  of  twenty  different  plants  or 
plodded  for  a  month  over  some  lesson  in  physics  about 
the  Ley  den  jar. 

Physics  and  chemistry  may  be  left  largely  to  the 
school  days,  unless  a  parent  has  a  passion  for  the  nat- 
ural sciences.  Simple  experiments  are  agreeable  di- 


NATURE  STUDIES  127 

versions,  but  the  labor  and  expense  involved  in  home 
studies  of  this  sort  commonly  render  them  imprac- 
ticable. Far  easier  are  studies  about  animals  and 
minerals,  and  children  are  always  interested  in  zool- 
ogy, even  when  they  only  know  it  through  the  stupid- 
est of  books. 

The  old-time  country  circus,  where  the  children 
were  allowed  to  feed  the  elephants,  ride  the  donkeys 
and  get  intimately  acquainted  with  the  monkeys  and 
parrots  were,  perhaps,  better  schools  of  learning  for 
zoology  than  those  that  have  succeeded  them.  But 
"  Zoos  "  are  in  nearly  every  city  and  trips  to  them 
within  the  reach  of  everybody.  If  the  parent  will 
take  the  pains  to  make  a  little  preparation  in  advance 
for  such  an  excursion,  so  as  to  be  able  to  answer  the 
inevitable  questions  about  the  habitats  of  the  kanga- 
roo and  the  Polar  bear,  and  not  confuse  the  long- 
haired goats  and  the  sheep  from  Australia,  he  will 
find  a  most  appreciative  small  audience  for  his  lec- 
ture. He  may  have  to  protect  the  animals  from  a 
too  lively  curiosity  on  the  part  of  his  zealous  offspring. 
A  certain  little  boy  who  was  noted  for  his  gentleness 
with  animals  was  one  day  discovered  deliberately  kill- 
ing a  June  bug.  To  the  remonstrance  of  his  mother 


128       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

he  replied,  in  a  cool,  philosophical  tone,  "  But, 
mamma,  it  is  necessary.  We  have  to  find  out  about 
these  things."  To  be  sure.  Was  not  his  uncle  a 
physician,  with  a  hobby  for  beetles  ? 

Unfortunately,  there  is  no  text-book  ready  at  hand 
containing  the  elements  of  natural  history  in  a  form 
busy  parents  may  find  satisfactory  for  hurried  con- 
sultation. Such  a  book  is  a  crying  need.  For  lack 
of  it  we  may  have  to  cull  from  many  volumes.  But 
in  the  appended  bibliography  there  will  be  found  the 
titles  of  the  best  that  I  have  discovered  in  my  re- 
searches, and  some  that  are  almost  equal  to  the  de- 
mands mothers  naturally  make.  At  least,  they  will 
be  found  very  helpful,  and  if  supplemented  by  real 
zeal  and  intelligence  on  the  part  of  the  parent,  will  be 
of  the  most  valuable  assistance  in  the  education  of 
the  child  in  such  an  important  branch  of  knowledge. 


CHAPTER  IX 
FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER 

"  All  intellectual  life  upon  our  planet  begins  with  geome- 
try."— HILL. 

JUST  now  it  is  the  fashion  to  rate  mathematics 
low.  There  has  heen  so  much  discussion 
lately  about  the  development  of  the  child's  per- 
sonality in  language  studies  that  the  once  rigid  idea 
that  mathematics  constitute  the  basis  of  all  mental 
training  has  been  succeeded  by  theories  that  are  easier 
both  for  teacher  and  pupil.  As  usually  understood 
and  taught,  arithmetic,  algebra  and  geometry  are  mere 
exercises  for  the  memory.  Logic  enters  not  into  them. 
So  distasteful  has  the  very  name  of  mathematics  be- 
come that  to  secure  toleration  for  the  amount  of  in- 
struction necessary  in  the  primary  grade  the  term 
"  number  lesson  "  has  been  invented.  And  herein 
through  deferring  to  popular  prejudice,  an  injustice 
has  been  done  toward  a  beautiful  and  useful  science. 

129 


For  arithmetic  is  not  the  science  of  number,  as 
is  so  often  carelessly  supposed,  but  of  valuation. 
Number  is  merely  the  outward  sign  of  the  inward 
grace.  Where  the  feeling  —  the  apprehension  of 
comparative  values  —  is  not  present  the  glib  tongue 
which  employs  itself  in  counting  is  as  silly  as  a  pendu- 
lum swinging  backward  and  forward  in  a  clock  whose 
works  are  out  of  order.  "  Unrelated  facts  are  not 
knowledge  any  more  than  the  words  of  a  dictionary 
are  connected  thoughts."  But  knowledge  begins  the 
instant  there  is  a  dawning  sense  of  comparison  be- 
tween several  things,  with  a  view  to  their  relative 
values. 

It  rarely  occurs  to  us  how  barren  this  world  would 
be  without  the  constantly  enjoyed  pleasure  of  making 
comparisons  as  to  the  value  of  different  things.  Much 
of  our  ordinary  entertainment  is  extracted  from  the 
habit  of  drawing  these  comparisons.  We  habitually 
say, — "  How  much  nicer, — how  much  prettier, —  how 
much  finer,"  is  this  article,  or  toilet,  or  show,  than 
some  other  with  which  we  put  it  into  opposition. 
And  when  some  one  differs  from  our  opinion  we 
doubt  the  justice  of  his  standards,  and  possibly  think 
that  his  taste  or  his  judgment  is  deficient  in  accuracy. 


FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          131 

I  should  say  there  really  are  no  "  unrelated  facts." 
It  is  impossible  to  withdraw  a  single  fact  from  its  con- 
nections with  other  matters  that  belong  to  it.  But  the 
relation  is  not  always  apparent  at  first  sight,  and  the 
tracing  out  of  subtle  associations  requires  considerable 
dexterity  of  reasoning. 

To  the  child  each  new  fact  is,  necessarily,  separate 
and  distinct  from  what  has  been  learned  before,  un- 
less we  are  so  careful  in  presenting  objects  to  him  that 
the  association  will  be  natural.  To  some  degree,  this 
might  be  done,  with  respect  to  mathematical  ideas. 
We  may  set  out  with  the  assumption  that  one  of  the 
earliest  conceptions  of  the  child  is  that  of  difference 
in  size.  He  learns  to  look  up  at  large  objects,  down 
to  those  that  are  smaller.  The  association  with  these 
instinctive  movements  establishes  itself  in  his  under- 
standing with  the  respective  bulks  of  the  things  looked 
at.  When  the  idea  of  form  comes  to  him  is  a  matter 
we  cannot  state  much  about;  but  probably  some  in- 
definite suggestions  are  gained  with  the  knowledge 
that  certain  things  roll  about,  as  his  balls,  while  other 
things  that  are  differently  shaped,  stand  still.  His 
first  idea  of  differences  in  shape  will  naturally  be 
those  between  square  and  round  objects.  It  will 


132      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

probably  be  some  time  before  the  less  remarkable  dif- 
ference that  exists  between  oblong  and  square  things 
is  noted.  Therefore,  we  do  not  wish  to  make  him 
go  out  of  his  way  to  observe  first  the  matters  that 
naturally  come  later  on;  we  will  not  suggest  to  the 
small  child  the  differences  existing  between  long  and 
square  things  before  he  has  remarked  the  related  facts 
of  squareness  as  opposed  to  roundness. 

And  before  this  even,  must  come  the  idea  of  differ- 
ence in  bulk  without  any  connection  with  shape. 
Consequently,  to  show  him  that  one  object  is  larger 
than  another,  the  two  objects  presented  ought  to  be 
of  similar  shape.  This  little  item,  which  is  impor- 
tant, is  seldom  considered.  In  fact,  very  rarely  is  any 
deliberate  attempt  made  to  educate  the  child  in  pri- 
mary ideas  of  a  mathematical  nature.  He  is  left  to 
chance,  and  acquires  his  notions  as  they  may  come  to 
him.  And  then,  we  wonder  that  mathematics  are 
difficult  and  obscure  to  the  school  child.  Sometimes 
parents  teach  their  children  "  to  count,"  believing 
that  this  starts  them  rightly  on  the  path  toward 
knowledge  of  arithmetic.  "  He  can  count  to  five,  to 
ten,"  boasts  some  thoughtless  parent,  when  the  baby 
tongue  has  repeated  the  string  of  one,  two,  three.  But 


FOKM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBEE          133 

it  is  very  unwise  to  teach  the  child  to  run  over  the 
names  of  numbers  without  associating  the  names  with 
any  meaning.  Nor  is  the  plan  of  having  baby  count 
objects,  such  as  spools  or  pennies,  any  better.  All 
this  is  artificial  training,  sure  to  disappoint  our  ex- 
pectations in  the  end.  Some  day  when  baby  is  display- 
ing his  little  accomplishment  he  makes  sad  blunders. 
He  puts  five  before  two;  leaves  out  four  altogether 
and  when  questioned  states  that  three  is  more  than 
six,  and  shows  utter  ignorance  of  any  power  of  gen- 
uine counting.  The  words  one,  two  and  three  mean 
absolutely  nothing  to  any  one  until  there  has  grown 
up  in  the  mind  a  sense  of  quantity.  When  he  realizes 
the  distinction  between  a  little  of  a  thing  and  more  of 
it,  between  a  few  objects  and  many  of  the  same  kind, 
he  begins  to  grasp  the  great  generalization  implied  in 
the  power  of  measurement. 

Before  we  can  be  exact  about  any  matter  we  must 
have  an  approximately  correct  impression  of  it  —  a 
general  idea.  Suppose  a  barbarian,  newly  landed  in 
New  York,  were  asked  for  his  opinion  as  to  the  su- 
periority of  cement  over  cobble-stones,  for  pavements  ? 
Having  no  knowledge  at  all  of  pavements,  how  could 
he  compare  one  sort  with  another?  But  if  he  first 


134      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

had  the  meaning  of  pavements  in  general  explained  to 
him,  he  might  soon  be  prepared  to  enter  into  the  ques- 
tion of  their  relative  values.  Based  upon  simple  no- 
tions of  practical  worth,  irrespective  of  vexing  tempta- 
tions of  contracters,  such  an  opinion  would  have  an 
unique  veracity. 

From  a  general  idea,  obtained  first,  a  clear,  definite 
understanding  of  any  situation  can  be  deduced.  Most 
people  err  in  their  beliefs  about  great  questions  be- 
cause their  particular  ideas  come  too  soon;  before 
the  ground-plan  of  a  generalization  that  is  correct  is 
laid:  It  is  absurd  to  attempt  to  be  exact  about  any- 
thing that  has  not  been  first  apprehended  in  a  gen- 
eral way.  Ignorant  children  talk  in  very  ridiculous 
fashion  about  going  to  war.  But  the  child  of  a  soldier 
of  the  line,  who  has  seen  a  single  actual  battle,  has 
a  conception  of  the  meaning  of  war  that  makes  his 
talk  strikingly  different  in  point  of  details.  We  speak 
sometimes  of  "  striking  facts,"  but  we  are  struck  by 
single  facts  because  they  confirm  a  general  principle 
previously  known.  Otherwise,  they  would  not  strike 
us  in  the  least. 

Now,  the  child's  mind  must  go  through  the  same 
mental  process  as  that  of  the  adult,  and  develop  the 


FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          135 

power  of  reasoning  after  the  same  mode;  from  gen- 
erals to  particulars  is  the  rule.  He  must  get  an  in- 
definite sense  of  the  difference  between  large  masses 
and  small  masses,  many  objects  and  few  objects,  be- 
fore he  can  comprehend  that  there  are  definite  and 
precise  degrees  of  value.  The  loose  notion  must  come 
before  the  compact  one.  Intelligent  children  take 
pleasure  in  comparing  one  thing  with  another.  They 
love  to  measure  and  weigh  articles  in  miniature 
scales;  they  continually  note  differences  between  ob- 
jects, and  although  their  distinctions  are  always  crude 
and  sometimes  absurd,  they  occasionally  show  sur- 
prising sharpness  in  finding  points  to  contrast. 

A  practical  and  feasible  means  of  teaching  the  small 
child  the  primary  mathematical  notions  is  to  furnish 
him  with  a  well  made  toy  scale,  that  will  balance 
very  correctly.  Then,  give  him  a  few  —  say,  six 
weights, —  each  one  doubling  the  value  of  the  other, 
that  is,  the  first  one  weighing  an  ounce,  the  second 
two  ounces,  and  so  on.  They  will  all  be  of  the  same 
shape  and  so  will  not  distract  his  mind  from  the  one 
object  in  view,  which  is,  to  discover  their  relations 
in  weight.  Weight  will  soon  become  related  to  size. 
After  he  has  learned  the  values  of  his  six  tools,  an- 


136      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

other  half  dozen,  relatively  heavier  and  larger,  may 
be  given  him.  With  these  well  understood  counters 
in  possession,  he  can  begin  to  play  the  game  of  judg- 
ing weight  values,  or  measuring.  First,  the  mother 
may  direct  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  one  weight  by 
itself  pulls  down  his  scale  so  much ;  then,  that  added 
weights  pull  down  so  much  more.  By  degrees,  all  the 
weights  being  added,  the  little  scale  is  weighted  to 
its  capacity.  Then,  the  marvel  of  deducting  may  be 
entered  upon.  First,  a  single  weight  removed  enables 
the  scale  to  rise  slightly,  another  makes  it  still  more 
buoyant ;  until  finally,  by  rapid,  pleasant  experiment- 
ing, the  child  learns  the  mysteries  of  adding  and  sub- 
tracting according  to  values,  before  he  has  been  both- 
ered with  the  merely  arbitrary  names  of  a  single  num- 
ber. 

If  we  could  only  practise  what  we  really  know  — 
that  objects  come  in  human  understanding  before  their 
names ;  but  we  concern  ourselves  too  much  with  teach- 
ing the  pupil  the  outside  aspect  of  knowledge,  and  far 
too  little  with  the  natural,  inner  meaning  of  it.  *  The 
faculty  of  discerning  differences  is  closely  allied  to 
what  is  called  the  mathematical  faculty,  yet  few 
people  appreciate  this.  How  many  parents  will  ap- 


FOKM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          137 

plaud  the  child  who  shows  readiness  to  repeat  num- 
bers, and  frowns  down  the  "  nonsense  "  of  curiosity 
as  to  relative  weights  and  sizes.  The  old-fashioned 
idea  that  "  doing  sums  "  as  country  children  say,  is 
mathematical  education,  still  prevails  among  us.  We 
can  scarcely  get  ourselves  to  believe  that  a  child  might 
become  firmly  grounded  in  the  principles  of  arithme- 
tic and  geometry  by  merely  being  helped  to  interpret 
his  surroundings  correctly,  even  if  he  never  handled 
a  slate  or  saw  a  pencil.  But  it  is,  nevertheless,  true. 
We  speak  of  a  thing  being  done  with  "  mathematical 
exactness  "  when  there  is  no  fault  in  its  proportions. 
Whenever  a  child  is  trained  to  notice  the  admirable 
proportions  of  a  symmetrical  building  he  is  being 
educated  in  mathematics.  When  he  is  required  to 
point  out  faulty  measurements,  to  observe  that  one 
side  of  a  thing  is  smaller  than  the  other,  that  lengths 
are  unequal,  that  an  object  that  should  be  completely 
round  has  become  flattened  on  one  side, —  all  these 
points  make  for  his  accuracy  and  help  him  in  the 
power  of  calculation. 

The  two  essentials  to  mathematical  exercises  are 
abstraction  and  generalization.  First  the  thing  is  ex- 
amined as  a  general  object,  and  afterwards  it  is  ex- 


138      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

amined  in  its  relation  to  other  objects  more  or  less  like 
itself.  The  child  notices  a  particular  chair  in  the 
room;  then  he  observes  other  chairs,  differing  from 
the  first  in  certain  details,  but  still,  enough  like  it  to 
be  classed  with  the  order.  In  concentrating  his  at- 
tention on  a  single  chair  among  several,  he  has  un- 
consciously performed  the  act  of  abstraction,  and  in 
grouping  several  together  again  because  of  their  re- 
semblance, he  generalizes. 

At  first  all  his  inferences  are  vague  and  meaning- 
less. He  is  blindly  obeying  a  natural  instinct  in 
noting  his  surroundings.  So  long  as  he  has  no  use  for 
the  objects  he  sees  they  are  as  unrelated  to  himself  as 
are  the  sun  and  moon.  But  the  instant  a  purpose  con- 
nected with  them  comes  into  his  head  they  assume 
definite  shape  and  value.  Say  that  he  wants  to  build 
a  train  with  the  chairs.  This  chair  shall  be  the  loco- 
motive —  no,  it  is  too  small ;  this  other  is  larger.  It 
is  too  large.  But  this  other  one  is  just  large  enough. 
Perhaps  he  asks  mother  if  she  will  please  move  to  some 
other  one  and  let  him  have  that  chair  to  play  with. 
"  What  a  silly  child,"  perhaps  she  returns,  and  chides 
him  for  being  inconsiderate.  The  inventor  always  is 


FORM,  SIZE  AKD  NUMBER          139 

inconsiderate.  Pallisy  burned  up  the  furniture  to 
keep  his  fires  going.  Small  John  might  be  required 
to  bring  mother  another  comfortable  chair  from  some 
place,  since  she  is  requested  to  resign  the  one  she  oc- 
cupies. But  if  I  were  that  mother  I  should  investi- 
gate all  the  circumstances  before  I  saw  in  the  seem- 
ingly rude  demand  a  matter  for  family  discipline. 
The  way  in  which  a  thing  is  done  should  count  more 
in  such  cases  than  the  thing  itself.  Even  the  child 
—  if  he  has  a  well  ordered  plan  in  mind,  deserves  to 
have  it  considered,  since  we  permit  trees  to  be  de- 
stroyed by  builders  of  apartment  houses.  It  takes  ten 
years  to  grow  a  shade  tree,  and  but  a  minute  for 
mother  to  change  from  one  chair  to  another ;  provided 
little  John  positively  cannot  find  another  chair  with 
exactly  the  proportions  he  requires  for  his  locomotive. 
But  have  him  look  well  first. 

How  the  child's  senses  become  sharpened  as  he 
needs  to  measure  things  with  a  view  to  their  useful- 
ness to  his  own  plans !  As  Professor  McLellan  justly 
observes,  the  child  and  the  savage  get  their  first  ideas 
of  quantity  and  value  when  they  come  to  construct 
something  out  of  sticks  and  stones.  All  building  in- 


140      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

volves  measuring,  and  it  is  through  measuring  that 
the  idea  of  numbers  is  obtained.  Which  brings  us  to 
our  point. 

Form  and  size,  as  mathematical  ideas,  should  al- 
ways precede  number.  Geometry  naturally  comes  be- 
fore arithmetic.  Do  not  let  us  be  satisfied  with 
merely  stating  this  point;  let  us  insist  upon  it.  I 
recollect  that  when  I  heard  Robert  Ingersoll  lecture 
once,  he  observed,  whenever  he  reached  a  doubtful 
point  in  his  discourse,  "  I'll  not  only  prove  this  point ; 
I'll  demonstrate  it."  And  then  he  related  some  lit- 
tle anecdote  that  fixed  it  in  his  hearers'  minds.  The 
only  anecdote  that  occurs  to  me  in  the  connection  of 
a  child's  apprehending  size  with  an  ease  that  appears 
almost  instinctive,  is  this:  A  certain  tot  of  three 
years,  whose  mother  is  quite  slim  and  not  tall,  was 
sitting  in  the  lap  of  the  colored  cook,  an  enormous 
personage  weighing  about  two  hundred  pounds,  when 
the  mother  called  her  little  daughter  to  her.  "  No, 
mamma  come  here,"  was  the  answer.  Coming  to  the 
kitchen  door,  the  mother  looked  reproachfully  at 
her  offspring,  and  said,  "  Little  things  come  to  big 
things." 

"  Mamma's  a  little  thing,"  roguishly  responded  the 


FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          141 

tot,  cuddling  against  the  ample  bosom  of  the  cook; 
"  mamma  come  to  —  Yiza !  " 

There  is  no  doubt  that  if  left  to  itself  the  child 
begins  to  measure  everything  quite  naturally,  thus 
training  his  judgment  long  before  any  idea  of  number 
takes  hold  of  his  mind.  Yet,  for  years  I  have  vainly 
sought  the  primary  school  where  this  principle,  now 
acknowledged  in  theory,  is  carried  out  in  practise. 
However  enlightened  the  teacher  may  be  she  has  to 
satisfy  the  parents.  And  parents  think  their  children 
are  playing  when  they  are  handling  blocks  shaped  into 
geometrical  forms  and  that  they  are  working  when 
they  "  do  sums  "  with  numbers  written  out  on  the 
blackboard. 

But  the  necessity  for  building  a  shelter  for  himself 
from  the  beasts  and  from  cold  made  man  a  reason- 
able, thinking  being.  Architecture  is  the  father  of 
all  the  sciences,  and  building  with  materials  shaped 
and  measured  for  the  purpose  is  the  operation  that 
calls  into  play  both  our  primitive  instincts  and  our 
trained  artistic  perceptions.  The  little  child  is  there- 
fore, getting  his  best  education  when  he  is  naturally 
and  unconsciously  constructing  houses  out  of  blocks. 
With  a  box  containing  numerous  blocks,  all  shapes 


and  sizes,  and  having  near  by  a  patient,  intelligent 
parent  to  throw  in  a  casual  word  of  explanation  from 
time  to  time,  the  child  may  familiarize  himself  with 
the  great  principles  of  science,  and  with  those  abstract 
terms  which  to  many  persons  remain  dread  symbols  of 
mysterious  quantities  to  the  end  of  their  lives.  Ac- 
customed to  hearing  his  blocks  spoken  of  as  cubes, 
spheres,  cylinders,  triangles,  squares,  oblongs  and 
circles,  these  terms  greet  his  ear  as  naturally  as  doll 
and  breakfast.  I  recollect  with  what  awe  I  heard  a 
school  mate,  whose  father  was  an  astronomer  of  great 
renown  on  two  continents,  casually  mention  such 
frightful  things  as  isosceles  triangles.  She  was  not 
even  afraid  of  quaternions.  As  I  saw  her  from  day  to 
day,  going  along  the  prosaic  streets,  her  head  slightly 
drooping,  as  one  buried  in  thought,  I  reflected  what  a 
privilege  was  hers,  in  dwelling  in  a  learned  atmos- 
phere ! 

Scientific  formulas  are  like  ghosts  —  awful  from 
a  distance  but  harmless  when  investigated.  The 
child  who  learns  in  the  security  of  his  home  the  na- 
ture of  figures  and  the  meaning  of  form  may  go  to 
school  bravely  and  defy  the  pedagogical  rule  which 
keeps  pupils  laboring  upon  three  until  it  is  thoroughly 


FORM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          143 

understood  and  then  proceed  to  five;  by  no  means 
permitting  any  thought  of  ten  until  seven  is  mastered, 
and  so  on  through  all  the  limitations  of  the  Grube 
method. 

At  a  little  country  school  which  was  kept  by  "  a 
gentlewoman "  in  New  England,  many  years  ago, 
there  entered  a  bright  child  of  eight  years,  who  had 
learned  many  things  of  her  mother.  There  was  no 
arbitrary  grading  there,  but  the  pupils  were  divided 
according  to  their  ages  and  general  abilities.  Each 
•morning  slates  were  given  out,  with  examples  written 
out  in  beautiful  figures  by  the  conscientious  teacher, 
ready  to  be  worked  out  and  returned  to  her.  The 
lowest  class  had  examples  in  addition,  the  next  in 
subtraction,  and  so  on,  the  highest  being  something 
mysterious  in  long  division.  The  first  day  Dolly 
soberly  worked  her  baby  "  sums  "  and  nothing  was 
said,  excepting  the  usual  mark  for  perfection.  She 
observed  that  she  had  been  put  in  the  lowest  class  and 
burned  for  advancement.  The  next  day  it  happened 
that  a  boy  whose  slate  contained  examples  in  subtrac- 
tion was  absent;  so  she  managed  to  obtain  possession 
of  his  slate,  worked  out  his  examples  and  sent  up  the 
slate  with  her  own.  "  Dolly  will  be  in  the  subtrac- 


tion  class  after  this,"  announced  the  teacher,  after  she 
had  examined  the  day's  work.  The  week  went  by  and 
the  ambitious  mite  watched  for  another  chance.  It 
came  soon  and  she  did  the  same  thing  with  multiplica- 
tion that  she  had  accomplished  with  the  lower  grade  of 
work ;  gaining  a  step  of  promotion.  The  teacher  was 
just  enough  not  to  keep  her  in  the  rear  of  a  class  she 
could  easily  keep  up  with.  Luckily,  this  was  not  a 
modern  school  with  hundreds  of  pupils.  From  the 
second  to  the  third  class  in  arithmetic  was  easy  for 
the  home-bred  child,  to  whom  calculating  was  merely 
practising  a  familiar  art,  and  when,  in  the  course  of 
a  month,  she  was  able  to  demonstrate  to  her  teacher 
that  the  "  four  rules  "  were  each  equally  easy  to  her, 
and  not  separated  by  that  harsh  line  of  demarkation 
which  ordinarily  breaks  their  continuity  she  was 
looked  upon  as  a  phenomenon.  But  it  was  nothing 
but  a  natural  development  of  a  mind  trained  to  ap- 
preciate values. 

The  idea  of  keeping  a  child  to  one  thing  until  he 
is  well  drilled  in  it  is  much  the  same  as  if  we  were 
to  forbid  him  to  notice  the  sun  and  stars  until  he  had 
exhausted  the  subject  of  his  nearer  neighbor,  the 
moon.  On  the  contrary,  let  us  give  him  broad,  bold 


FOKM,  SIZE  AND  NUMBER          145 

views  from  the  beginning;  not  crowding  knowledge 
upon  him  but  furnishing  information  as  fast  as  he 
shows  curiosity.  It  is  easy  to  teach  the  three-old 
architect  that  joining  two  triangles  of  equal  size 
gives  a  perfect  square ;  that  a  circle  cut  exactly  in  half 
gives  him  two  halves  or  semi-circles,  etc.  No  formal 
lessons,  but  all  done  in  play  and  as  he  needs  the 
knowledge  for  his  building  purposes. 

In  the  course  of  conversation  we  should  cultivate 
the  child's  observation  of  the  relative  size  and  form 
of  all  objects,  aiming  toward  general  correctness  of 
view  rather  than  toward  accuracy  in  trifling  details. 
It  is  much  more  important  that  he  should  really  know 
what  things  are  than  that  he  should  be  able  to  describe 
them  in  set  terms.  The  one  knowledge  is  his  own, 
the  other  ours.  Hugo  Goring,  an  authority  upon 
psychology  applied  to  teaching,  desires  that  the  child, 
in  his  early  studies,  shall  not  first  learn  what  has  been 
learned  by  others,  but  shall  be  led  to  understand  what 
he  has  himself  experienced.  In  this  brief  sentence 
is  contained  a  great  philosophy  of  life. 

Youth  has  more  capacity  for  exactness  than  it  is 
given  credit  for.  Are  we  not  sometimes  surprised 
at  finding  a  little  child  a  stickler  for  truth  in  details  ? 


146      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

With  this  characteristic  there  usually  goes  capacity 
for  sound  reasoning,  and  a  good  mathematician  is 
perhaps  before  us.  By  sensible  training  we  may  lead 
him  peacefully  along  the  path  that  is  so  often  made 
unnecessarily  thorny. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  divide  all  knowledge  into 
small  doses;  making  the  child  add  up  thousands  be- 
fore he  subtracts  two  from  three.  With  a  "  numeral 
frame  "  to  help  us  we  may  give  him  an  understand- 
ing of  the  four  rules  of  arithmetic  long  before  he 
knows  what  a  figure  is.  And  when  he  comes  to  deal 
with  figures  they  will  not  be  hateful  tools  of  an 
obscure  science,  but  merely  the  signs  of  what  he  al- 
ready knows. 


CHAPTEE  X 
MOTHER  WIT  —  AJST>  HUMOR 

"We  should  not  attempt  to  turn  what  is  essentially  se- 
rious into  fun;  that  is  corrupting  both  to  taste  and  judg- 
ment. But  to  discover  the  funny  side  of  things  and  por- 
tray it  gracefully  is  both  pleasing  and  instructive." — LA 
BRUYERE. 

POSSIBLY  the  famous  Haroun-al-Kaschid 
of  Bagdad  was  the  only  monarch  who  really 
ever  became  acquainted  with  his  subjects  and 
knew  them  as  they  were.  Wandering  about  in  dis- 
guise, he  jested  with  them,  he  played  their  games, 
he  entered  into  their  intimate  companionship.  Ste- 
venson gives  us  a  revival  of  the  Arabian  Nights  in  his 
tales,  and  has  brought  the  intrepid  old  fellow  to  life 
again  in  more  sophisticated  form.  And  here  too, 
we  see  the  meaning  allegory  of  humoristic  knowledge 
of  mankind,  and  the  importance  of  it  in  governing. 
It  is  impossible  to  deal  with  an  unknown  quantity  in 

human  nature.    Even  Jove  was  compelled  to  descend 

147 


148       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

from  his  throne  in  the  skies  to  see  the  foibles  and 
follies  of  mortals  near  by.  Modern  monarchs  have 
exchanged  their  crowns  for  hats  on  ordinary  occasions 
and  gone  about  to  learn  the  lay  of  their  land  with  the 
vernacular  upon  their  tongues  and  all  their  dignity 
put  aside.  And  if  they  do  not  learn  what  they  want 
the  drama  teaches  them.  "  What  state  and  power 
are  impotent  to  achieve  humor  shall  win." 

I  think  that  an  hour  spent  in  play  with  children 
gives  us  better  insight  into  their  characteristics  than 
many  hours  of  study  of  psychology.  Not  that  I 
depreciate  a  science  I  have  furrowed  over  during  years 
of  conscientious  effort  after  methods;  but  the  living 
is  ever  better  than  its  sha'dow,  and  the  veritable  child 
more  enlightening  than  the  skeleton  in  a  book.  All 
depends  on  the  spirit  we  bring  to  the  work,  however. 
Unless  a  mother  can  enjoy  intercourse  with  her  chil- 
dren and  be  young  with  them,  she  will  never  under- 
stand them  nor  they  her.  The  ability  to  drop  care 
and  responsibility  and  frolic  for  a  little  space  is 
a  natural  talent  possessed  by  the  born  teacher,  who 
is  also  the  splendid  mother.  It  is  not  the  pedagogue 
who  is  most  valuable  to  the  intellectual  world  but  the 
one  who  contributes  new  items  to  the  fund  of  knowl- 


MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR        149 

edge  about  human  nature.  And  it  is  not  the  learned 
mother  who  is  most  competent  to  instruct  her  children 
but  the  mother  who  understands  them.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  world  that  brings  mother  and  child 
nearer  together  than  mutual  enjoyment  of  fun ;  noth- 
ing more  appreciated  by  the  young  person  than  that 
maternal  sense  of  humor  which  can  find  the  funny 
side  of  life  at  every  turn,  and  color  dull  times  with 
the  prismatic  hues  of  optimism. 

The  philosopher  Renan  began  life  under  austere  cir- 
cumstances and  his  early  years  were  full  of  labor  and 
self-denial,  but  they  were  brightened  by  the  joyous, 
elastic  disposition  of  his  mother,  a  Gascon  woman  who 
possessed  the  vivacity  and  buoyancy  of  her  race,  and 
who  set  him  the  example  of  bearing  hardships  with 
cheerful  good-humor  and  hopefulness.  The  humble 
house  at  St.  Ores  and  the  little  garden  planted  with 
fruit  trees  where  he  played  with  his  sister  can  still 
be  seen.  From  his  father  he  inherited  a  dreamy, 
sensitive  nature  which  gave  him  the  gravity  that  al- 
ways distinguished  him ;  but  it  was  happily  balanced 
by  his  mother's  cheerfulness,  to  which  he  believed 
himself  indebted  for  much  of  his  happiness  in  life. 
The  early  idea  that  obtained  lodgment  in  his  mind 


150       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

that  life  is  good  and  effort  worth  while  never  left  him. 
Probably  he  could  have  repeated  in  his  old  age  the 
very  jests  he  had  heard  in  his  infancy  from  those 
beloved  lips. 

Who  does  not  recollect  with  extreme  pleasure  the 
funny  stories  his  father  told  at  the  dinner  table  ?  Or 
perhaps  it  was  a  grandfather  who  was  the  wit,  and 
made  the  family  party  merry  by  the  hearth  in  the 
evening.  For  my  part  I  would  not  sell  for  cash  the 
cheerful  memories  of  my  father's  old  tales,  with  all 
their  concomitant  circumstances  of  fun  and  good 
times  in  the  family  circle.  There  was  a  tradition  of 
a  certain  ancestor  who  had  a  remarkable  wit,  and  some 
of  her  little  stories  were  contributions  to  certain 
evenings.  I  recall  my  childish  sense  of  loss  in  not 
having  known  her  personally ! 

I  have  a  fancy  that  when  the  inscrutable  fate  which 
appoints  our  earthly  lot  was  busy  separating  good  and 
bad  qualities  that  one  escaped  her  before  she  had 
placed  it  and  so  became  forever  free  to  go  where  it 
would.  And  it  has  chosen  to  go  where  it  is  most 
needed  —  now  lightening  some  toilsome  pathway  of 
poverty  and  sorrow,  now  turning  to  joy  the  trials  of 
a  soul  unfitted  to  battle  with  affliction  —  everywhere 


MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR        151 

drawing  all  eyes  with  delight  and  lightening  human 
woe  by  an  instant's  laughter.  Surely,  humor  is  Na- 
ture's best  gift  to  mortals!  Blessed  among  women 
the  mother  whom  it  possesses,  who  is  swayed  by  it  so 
that  she  is  compelled  whether  she  will  or  not,  to  be 
drawn  away  from  contemplation  of  whatever  is  un- 
pleasant by  the  irresistible  propensity  to  see  its  hu- 
morous side. 

To  have  a  keen  sense  of  the  ludicrous  is  not  neces- 
sarily to  be  shallow.  Some  of  the  greatest  humorists 
unite  with  that  sprightly  gift  a  deep  tenderness  and 
broad  sympathy.  Their  lips  smile  at  sight  of  an 
absurd  spectacle  while  their  eyes  overflow  in  recog- 
nizing the  pathos  that  is  its  so  frequent  accompani- 
ment. It  is  this  quick  perception  of  a  situation  as 
a  whole,  this  power  to  see  all  aspects  at  once,  that 
gives  us  just  judgments  tempered  by  mercy;  se- 
verity lined  with  leniency,  that  acts  as  a  saving  grace 
to  culprits.  "  Faith,"  said  Pat,  when  comforted  with 
the  assurance  of  having  a  just  judge;  "  'tis  not  that 
I  want  so  much  as  one  that'll  lean  a  little !  " 

The  gentle  humor  which  flows  like  a  May  shower 
on  some  arid  spot  can  make  pleasant  even  the  dry-as- 
dust  talk  about  "  populations  "  and  the  census  reports. 


152       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

There  are  people  who  make  everything  dull  the 
moment  they  touch  upon  it;  while  others  render  the 
same  topics  interesting  by  approaching  them  from  a 
new  point  of  view.  And  as  "  interest  is  the  life  of 
teaching  "  it  is  the  running  commentary  of  a  piece 
of  task-work  that  is  often  best  remembered;  the  rest 
fading  from  the  mind  like  a  blot  scratched  by  the 
sharp  point  of  Time's  ruthless  eraser. 

Few  in  number  are  those  among  us  whose  genius 
is  of  this  cast;  who  are  essentially  human  in  their 
altruism;  who  carry  in  their  breasts  an  innocent 
merriment,  infectious,  enjoyable.  How  eagerly  is 
such  a  person  welcomed  in  any  company ;  how  people 
admire  him ;  how  little  children  flock  about  him !  A 
parent  blessed  with  humor  has  about  him  a  magnet 
that  subdues  rebellion  and  charms  away  ill-temper; 
that  wins  spontaneous  affection,  ensures  confidence, 
and  opens  the  path  to  mutual  comprehension,  so  that 
knowledge  may  be  imparted  with  complete  natural- 
ness and  ease,  and  many  a  thing  "  learned  in  suffer- 
ing may  be  taught  in  song." 

We  all  know  the  good  mother  who  is  zealous  for 
her  child's  welfare,  devoted  and  painstaking  but  nar- 
row and  stiff  and  solemn;  believing  merriment  a 


MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR        153 

sort  of  absurdity  and  seriousness  the  proper  course 
in  life.  As  soon  as  her  fledglings  can  travel  they 
flee  from  her  society  to  seek  the  genial  atmosphere 
of  some  place  where  they  can  frolic  and  jest  at  their 
pleasure  and  never  be  called  idiotic  when  they  are 
inclined  to  be  playful.  They  also  find  it  difficult  to 
have  for  her  the  measure  of  affection  that  her  real 
worth  deserves.  "  A  good  mother,"  says  the  weary 
son  or  daughter,  "  but  — "  a  sigh  completes  the  sen- 
tence. A  little  less  goodness  and  a  little  more  cheeri- 
ness  would  increase  the  attraction  of  the  parent  who 
moves  through  the  nursery  with  a  severe  eye  upon 
lapses  from  propriety  and  with  a  strange  aloofness 
from  the  children  whom  she  loves  well  but  has  never 
understood. 

Heaven  help  the  dignity  which  is  ice-bound  in  its 
own  self -righteousness ;  which  is  never  self-forgetful, 
and  loses  the  very  best  of  life  through  a  bigoted 
adherence  to  the  one  side  of  existence  that  relates 
to  duty!  This  kind  of  conscientiousness,  which  is 
a  disease  of  our  New  England  blood,  is  slow  in  yield- 
ing to  the  remedies  suggested  by  the  science  of  the 
twentieth  century.  We  could  all  have  more  sense  of 
humor  if  we  believed  it  a  good  thing  to  have  and  cul- 


154,      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

tivated  it  carefully  instead  of  trampling  it  down. 
True  humor  is  not  coarse  wit  at  another's  expense; 
that  vaudeville  apishness  which  passes  for  it  among 
the  crowd  of  thoughtless  amusement-seekers.  It  is  a 
finer  thing,  a  more  delicate  and  lovely  quality,  which 
is  tinctured  with  fancy  and  brightened  by  imagina- 
tion. What  made  Charles  Lamb  the  idol  of  his 
circle?  There  were  twenty  others  as  wise,  as  tal- 
ented, as  versatile;  but  not  one  who  had  his  inimita- 
ble gift  of  drawing  out  from  every  subject  the 
unnoticed  trait  of  the  pleasantly  fantastic  that  makes 
a  bon  mot  stick  forever  in  the  memory  of  the  hearer. 
The  few  witty  sayings  of  all  great  men  and  women 
are  treasured  by  the  world  and  recollected  when  their 
actions  become  involved  in  the  mists  of  the  past. 
Their  biographers  hunt  for  such  anecdotes  with 
pathetic  eagerness  and  to  find  a  new  one  is  a  triumph 
that  brings  happy  tears  to  their  eyes.  The  genuine 
humorist,  in  real  life  and  in  literature,  is  the  veritable 
hero,  beside  whom  the  hero  of  melodrama  is  as  a 
dancing  jack,  without  any  permanently  interesting 
quality.  The  whole  world  is  grateful  to  its  fun- 
makers.  Is  the  child  less  appreciative  of  the  rainbow 
that  relieves  the  gloom  of  work?  For  all  mental 


MOTHEE  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR       155 

work  has  its  essential  periods  of  gloom  and  dis- 
couragement; the  spirit  is  oppressed  as  if  the  drizzle 
of  an  autumn  afternoon  settled  down  upon  it.  The 
adult,  aware  of  the  good  result  to  follow,  often  gives 
out  half-way.  The  child,  to  whom  the  future  means 
scarcely  anything,  needs  still  more  to  have  his  labor 
brightened.  Why  should  labor  be  rendered  so  hard  ? 
I  wish  that  all  text-books  could  have  some  funny 
things  in  them;  that  not  only  history  and  rhetoric, 
but  algebra  and  geography,  physics  and  grammar, 
could  be  lightened  and  brightened  by  the  humoristic 
quality.  This  is  where  the  dull  conscientiousness  I 
alluded  to  above,  comes  in  to  discourage  any  attempt 
at  novel  departures.  What  would  a  school  board 
say  to  a  geography  full  of  anecdotes  and  containing 
information  running  over  with  fun  and  wit?  Kin- 
dergarten stuff! 

Well;  up  in  a  certain  dear  old  garret  there  used 
to  be  heaps  of  ancient  books,  coming  down  from  dis- 
carded family  libraries ;  and  a  little  girl  curious  and 
eager  after  printed  things  found  among  other  matters 
a  small  volume  entitled  "  Countries  of  Europe,"  by 
A.  L.  0.  E.  In  it  there  were  stories  about  all  the 
people  in  the  world,  or  so  it  seemed  to  the  charmed 


156       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

little  reader,  and  during  the  hours  she  spent  humped 
lip  in  the  garret,  pursuing  these  old-fashioned  tales, 
she  learned  to  appreciate  something  of  her  relations 
with  other  races,  to  know  the  world  she  lived  in; 
and  the  facts  in  that  book  stayed  by  her  when  formal 
lessons,  learned  at  school  in  dignified  geographies, 
containing  hideous  maps  full  of  "  chief  cities  "  and 
rivers  to  be  placed  according  to  tiresome  rules  of  lo- 
cation, took  flight  and  never  came  back.  That  book 
is  lost,  unhappily,  and  it  has  been  out  of  print  for 
ages,  or  I  should  certainly  put  it  among  the  list  of 
books  to  be  studied  by  mothers  despite  the  antiquity 
of  its  facts.  It  would  show  them  how  to  make  knowl- 
edge interesting,  and  that  is  better  than  to  make  it 
completely  —  perfectly,  exact.  Of  a  truth,  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  perfectly  exact  knowledge.  All  of 
it  is  approximately  correct.  Why,  then,  fear  a  little 
embroidery  of  interest  that  enhances  its  importance 
and  keeps  it  fresh  in  the  mind  ? 

One  should  be  careful  not  to  give  a  child  erroneous 
information.  But  to  give  him  general,  loose  and 
somewhat  indefinite  ideas  at  first  is  perhaps  a  better 
thing  than  to  try  to  impress  him  with  certain  distinct 
facts.  A  good  general  knowledge  of  any  subject  is 


MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR        157 

an  excellent  preparation  for  the  filling  in  of  details 
later  on,  at  school.  So  the  mother  who  has  the  gift 
of  infusing  joy  into  her  instruction  is  sure  to  have 
her  instructions  remembered,  while  the  teacher's  more 
formal  imparting  of  the  same  subject  will  probably 
pass  from  his  mind. 

One  of  the  beauties  of  liveliness  in  teaching  is  that 
it  sets  children  at  their  ease,  banishes  constraint  and 
allows  their  minds  to  act  freely.  And  the  adroit 
instructor  may  add  variations  to  his  topic  as  his 
observation  leads  him  to  see  the  need  of  changes. 
We  cannot  develop  the  best  characteristics  of  our  chil- 
dren until  we  learn  to  know  them  well,  and  in  order 
to  do  this  we  must  meet  them  on  their  own  ground, — - 
see  them  completely  at  ease  and  without  any  affecta- 
tions of  grown-up  manners.  When  the  child  has  ab- 
solutely no  fear  of  his  parents  and  feels  free  to  act 
out  all  his  little  whimsical  impulses  without  incurring 
ridicule  no  frolicsome  kitten  is  so  funny  as  the 
youngster  who  is  not  trying  to  be  funny  at  all.  The 
sympathetic  mother  sees  pathos  and  humor  posing  side 
by  side  in  the  living  child  groups  in  her  nursery, 
and  she  reads  in  the  queer  sayings  and  doing  of  her 
miniature  men  and  women  many  deep,  earnest  pur- 


158       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

poses  that  throw  a  flash-light  over  abiding  aims  of 
their  growing  natures. 

With  children  we  may  say,  instead  of  "  many  a 
true  word  is  spoken  in  jest " —  that  "  many  a  jesting 
word  is  meant  seriously."  A  child's  humor  is  often 
merely  earnestness.  To  understand  it  thoroughly 
one  must  be  for  the  nonce,  a  child  at  heart.  The 
mother  who  keeps  her  child  at  a  distance,  even  when 
she  tolerates  an  amount  of  impertinence  that  makes 
outsiders  suppose  her  upon  terms  of  rather  absurd 
intimacy  with  him,  will  never  be  able  to  get  into  his 
inner  nature  as  the  mother  who  knows  how  to  interest 
him  will.  Respect  never  yet  was  inspired  by  the  per- 
son who  insisted  upon  receiving  it,  but  it  flows  out 
spontaneously  toward  those  whose  characters  make  the 
claim  they  never  think  of  suggesting. 

The  mother  who  wants  respect  and  merely  that, 
will  do  well  to  keep  her  children  at  a  distance  and 
neither  tolerate  familiarities  nor  a  frank  disclosure 
of  their  ideas  and  fancies.  Her  amour  propre  will 
not  then  suffer.  But  the  mother  who  appreciates  the 
beauty  and  value  of  a  close  attachment  between  her- 
self and  her  younger  selves,  and  who  aims  to  estab- 
lish relations  that  neither  time  nor  absence  can 


MOTHER  WIT  —  AND  HUMOR        159 

weaken,  must  be  prepared  to  make  some  sacrifices 
in  order  to  attain  them.  She  must  first  of  all,  culti- 
vate cheerfulness  in  her  daily  intercourse  with  them. 
Optimism  is  the  glossary  that  explains  hardships. 
The  parent  who  has  it  ready  at  hand  to  pass  on  to 
the  children  may  put  formal  authority  by.  The 
mother  with  a  blithe  and  ready  humor  possesses  a 
fascination  that  makes  her  companionship  sought  and 
her  instructions  received  with  avidity.  And  added 
to  the  present  satisfaction  of  congenial  relations  with 
her  children  will  be  the  assurance  that  she  will  dwell 
always  in  their  memories  like  "  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 

"  Mother  had  the  quickest  sense  of  humor  of  any 
one  I  ever  met,"  said  an  elderly  man  with  pride. 
And  one  could  see  that  in  his  heart  followed  other 
thoughts.  "  How  happy  that  mother  made  me,  and 
how  I  loved  her." 


CHAPTEE  XI 

THE  RIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING 

"  It  is  necessary  that  in  the  impressions  brought  to  the 
child  by  instruction  there  should  be  sequence;  so  that  the 
beginning  and  progress  of  his  learning  should  keep  pace 
with  his  mental  development." — PESTALOZZI. 

IF  there  is  one  part  of  education  that  especially 
demands  individual  instruction  more  than  other 
sorts,  it  is  instruction  in  the  art  of  reading. 
Yet  parents  usually  consider  that  this  is  the  par- 
ticular function  of  the  school.  Methods  have 
changed  greatly  since  we  were  ourselves  children  and 
there  may  be  danger  of  our  proceeding  in  ways  that 
are  contrary  to  advanced  theories  upon  the  subject. 
But  in  truth,  the  schools  are  all  merely  carrying  on  a 
system  of  experiments  that  may  succeed  or  may  fail. 
The  very  same  methods  that  are  now  looked  upon 
with  admiration  may  within  a  short  time  fall  into 
disfavor. 

Meanwhile  it  is  certain  that  many  of  the  most 
160 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  BEADING     161 

brilliant  persons  of  our  generation  are  the  products 
of  what  is  called  old-fashioned  methods  in  education. 
So  may  it  not  be  that  any  method  is  good  which  ef- 
fects the  right  results  ?  "  Whatever  policy  has  long 
received  the  sanction  of  the  wise  and  good  is  likely 
to  have  some  element  of  truth  in  it,"  said  a  profound 
philosopher.  The  belief  therefore,  that  learning  has 
an  element  of  drudgery  in  it  which  cannot  be  escaped 
cannot  be  overturned  by  the  rather  frantic  efforts  of 
advanced  theorists  to  convert  primary  schools  into 
kindergartens.  The  best  teacher  in  the  world  is  not 
able  to  avoid  the  introduction  of  labor  into  intellectual 
work.  It  is  well  for  this  to  be  frankly  admitted. 
There  are  dull  spaces  over  which  the  child  must  be 
enticed  by  the  prospect  of  pleasanter  times  to  come. 
It  is  necessary  for  him  to  become  used  to  a  little 
hardship,  since  work  is  the  law  of  life.  But  our  ideal 
is  to  make  the  subject  in  hand  more  and  more  inter- 
esting, so  that  difficulties  will  be  encountered  near  the 
beginning,  while  interest  is  fresh  and  energy  at  its 
highest  point.  Then,  after  weariness  has  begun  to 
set  in  the  encouraging  suggestion  may  come  that  the 
worst  is  already  over.  Has  not  every  one  observed 
that  it  is  always  at  the  outset  of  a  new  thing  that  the 


162      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

child's  courage  and  enterprise  are  at  their  height? 
A  new  suggestion  is  a  sort  of  "  dare  "  which  he  takes 
blindly  and  recklessly,  poor  innocent,  and  it  is  by 
working  along  this  line  of  capturing  a  fortress  by 
storm  that  the  adroit  teacher  scores  a  success. 

Now,  if  we  wait  until  a  child  is  seven  or  eight 
years  old  to  teach  him  how  to  read,  or  even  until  he 
is  six,  which  is  the  period  at  which  children  who 
have  no  home  training  usually  enter  the  primary 
class  he  will  probably  have  already  acquired  a  fear 
of  the  drudgery  of  learning  the  alphabet,  A  dull 
and  lifeless  way  of  imparting  this  essential  knowledge 
has  long  since  brought  it  into  extreme  disfavor.  One 
of  the  older  domestic  novels  contains  a  picture  of  a 
primitive  country  school  taught  by  a  talented  young 
teacher  who  "  wearied  herself  the  whole  afternoon 
telling  Johnnie  and  Emma  that  the  round  letter  was 
O  and  the  crooked  letter  S."  She  probably  wearied 
her  small  pupils  almost  to  death  also. 

To  do  away  with  this  bugbear  modern  teachers  have 
adopted  the  "  sight  reading "  method.  Words  are 
recognized  as  "  wholes  "  and  when  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  words  have  been  recognized  "  reading  follows." 
But  spelling  does  not.  And  the  kind  of  reading 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING     163 

that  "  follows  "  is  a  very  shallow  and  superficial  sort. 
Sight  reading  exercises  one  part  of  the  mind  exclu- 
sively, and  that  the  one  which  is  apt  to  be  over- 
exercised  at  every  point, —  the  memory.  The  system 
is  good  when  conjoined  with  a  knowledge  of  letters 
and  sounds,  thus  enabling  the  child  to  perceive  why 
certain  combinations  of  letters  form  words;  but  not 
where  he  has  no  such  basis  to  reason  from.  Spelling 
taught  through  "  word  building  "  is  less  to  be  banned 
as  rote  learning  than  sight  reading,  for  it  develops 
the  child's  reasoning  powers  at  every  step,  and  gives 
him  material  to  go  on  indefinitely. 

But  the  alphabet  naturally  and  logically  takes 
precedence  in  a  sound  knowledge  of  reading.  And 
it  may  be  taught  to  very  young  children  in  a  way  to 
make  it  exceedingly  easy  and  agreeable.  One  bright 
young  mother  of  my  acquaintance  devised  a  plan  that 
must  meet  with  the  warm  approbation  of  every  one 
who  tries  it  personally,  and  will  doubtless  succeed 
with  other  children  as  well  as  it  did  with  her  own. 

She  realized  that  the  natural  tendency  of  the  child 
is  to  carry  into  all  activities  the  idea  of  family  life; 
to  make  people  out  of  inanimate  things.  You  may 
make  a  drab  stone  fascinating  to  an  infant  by  imagin- 


164      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ing  it  peopled  by  a  race  of  stony  mites.  So,  instead 
of  answering  her  little  one's  eager  inquiries  about  the 
symbols  on  her  painted  blocks  by  a  mechanical  repe- 
tition of  their  names  as  letters,  she  made  up  a  play 
which  should  familiarize  the  child  with  letters  as 
individuals. 

First,  she  bought  a  large  box  of  plain  blocks,  all 
shapes  and  sizes,  such  as  come  under  the  name  of 
"  building  blocks."  Then,  selecting  twenty-six  small 
cubes,  she  painted  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  on  them 
and  put  them  all  in  a  box  by  themselves.  Showing 
this  to  the  child  she  told  him  that  these  persons  all 
belonged  to  one  family  called  the  Alphabet  family. 
There  were  Mother  A  and  twenty-five  children,  and 
the  father,  &c.  who  was  away  on  a  voyage  and  would 
not  be  back  for  some  time.  The  child's  fancy  seized 
upon  the  idea  with  avidity,  and  on  the  first  day  he 
learned  with  ease,  the  names  of  the  mother  and  her 
first  four  children,  who  were  introduced  by  the  teacher 
with  due  formality,  in  their  proper  sequence.  Upon 
the  introduction  of  each  new  member  of  the  family 
they  used  the  other  building  blocks  to  build  him  a 
house,  just  the  shape  of  himself,  after  which  they 
drew  his  likeness  on  paper,  to  stand  in  front  of  his 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING     165 

door,  as  his  name  plate.  With  the  four  letters  they 
played  games  for  an  hour  or  so,  the  little  one  amusing 
himself  alone  for  a  long  time  after  the  mother  had 
withdrawn.  She  promised  to  resume  the  play  the 
next  day  at  the  same  hour,  and  then  the  child  was 
taught  the  names  of  the  two  succeeding  letters  of 
the  family.  He  was  limited  to  learning  two  letters 
each  day,  so  as  not  to  eat  more  rapidly  than  he  could 
digest.  Every  letter  had  a  pretty  tale  of  his  adven- 
tures to  relate,  and  in  this  way  the  child  received 
an  excellent  training  in  language.  Many  were  the 
evolutions  they  put  the  letters  through;  all  sorts  of 
dramas  were  enacted,  and  the  familiar  intercourse 
became  so  natural,  that  the  rapidity  and  ease  with 
which  the  three-year-old  child  proceeded  to  spell  was 
surprising. 

It  was  necessary  to  hold  him  back  to  prevent  his 
going  too  fast.  In  twelve  days  he  had  learned  the 
entire  alphabet,  and  there  was  not  the  least  apparent 
effort  about  it.  John  Burroughs'  "  Little  Nature 
Studies"  was  taken  up  for  sight  reading,  and  I 
should  be  afraid  to  tell  how  quickly  this  child  mas- 
tered its  contents.  In  truth,  he  was  an  able  child, 
with  a  thirst  for  knowledge. 


166       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

Yet  children  with  very  ordinary  abilities  might  be 
led  by  similar  devices  to  learn  "  to  read  without 
tears  "  as  the  old  copy-books  say.  I  do  not  recom- 
mend teaching  a  child  to  read  at  three  or  four,  ex- 
cept where  the  desire  shows  itself  persistently.  In 
homes  where  the  atmosphere  is  bookish  children  will 
naturally  be  desirous  of  sharing  an  occupation  their 
elders  find  so  agreeable,  and  from  entreating  to  have 
stories  told  them,  will  advance  without  urging  to  try- 
ing to  read  for  themselves. 

For  some  reason  there  was  a  theory  in  my  family 
that  I  was  to  be  kept  from  books  as  long  as  possible. 
I  probably  learned  the  letters  with  the  aid  of  a  nurse, 
from  blocks,  for  they  were  mine  by  a  sort  of  natural 
right.  But  my  mental  activity  was  forced  to  be  satis- 
fied with  small  doses  of  spelling;  lessons  I  detested, 
but  took  in  default  of  any  others.  And  when  at  seven 
years,  I  still  found  the  printed  page  a  closed  show 
to  me  I  took  the  matter  in  hand  desperately,  myself, 
and  learned  to  read  by  my  own  efforts.  I  found  that 
the  spelling  tasks  had  enabled  me  to  pick  out  a  cer- 
tain number  of  words  in  a  book,  and  there  was  one 
little  book  that  had  been  used  to  read  stories  from 
for  my  amusement  until  I  had  it  almost  by  heart. 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING     167 

By  dint  of  considerable  hard  labor  I  mastered  its  con- 
tents, bit  by  bit,  and  then  the  field  was  won.  My 
elders  thenceforth  had  a  hard  time  answering  my  pur- 
suing inquiries, — "  How  do  you  pronounce  L-i-m-b  ? 
T-h-i-m-b-1-e  ?  "  and  so  on.  I  must  have  been  worse 
than  old  Pumblechook,  with  his  dreadful  lessons  in 
addition  to  poor  little  Pip.  When  I  could  get  no- 
body to  answer  me,  I  read  on,  supplying  my  own 
pronunciation  according  to  the  sounds  of  the  letters. 
And  some  queer  mistakes  I  make  in  our  illogical 
language.  One  name  in  a  book,  Stephen,  I  called 
throughout  the  entire  volume,  as  it  was  written, 
Step-hen,  making  two  syllables  of  it,  and  thinking  it 
a  singular  name  for  a  man,  without  associating  it 
in  the  least  with  the  same  word,  spelled  as  I  supposed, 
Steven,  which  was  my  father's  name.  But  by  digging 
my  way  thus  through  the  mazes  of  elementary  learn- 
ing I  made  a  foundation  that  went  rather  deep  into 
the  soil  of  perseverance,  and  rendered  me  hardy,  at 
least. 

Most  modern  children,  however,  require  the  ap- 
pearance of  ease.  They  are  impatient  of  long  and 
difficult  tasks.  If  we  can  find  out  any  way  to  shorten 
the  long  path  of  learning  to  read  it  is  desirable 


168       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

to  do  so,  and  there  are  some  improvements  that  it 
is  well  to  adopt.  Perhaps  the  easiest  way  for  the 
child  to  familiarize  himself  with  printed  words  is 
for  him  to  learn  to  recite  a  well-known  little  story 
or  poem  with  the  book  in  his  hand.  Long  before 
"  sight  reading "  was  advocated  this  appearance  of 
reading  off  the  printed  page  was  a  little  trick  be- 
loved of  children.  Give  a  small  child  a  newspaper 
and  see  how  quickly  his  face  will  assume  an  absorbed 
expression  as  his  eyes  seem  to  follow  words  down  a 
column,  and  he  proudly  tells  you  he  is  "  reading  like 
papa."  Advantage  may  be  taken  of  this  taste  to 
induce  him  to  "  read  "  from  his  picture  book  a  se- 
lected bit  of  verse,  printed  in  large  letters ;  gradually 
the  familiar  words  will  begin  to  mean  something  to 
him.  They  will  change  from  abstractions  to  objects 
with  histories,  and  instead  of  the  slow  process  that 
used  to  go  on  with  primer  lessons,  where  the  pictures 
really  were  the  sole  things  of  interest,  the  words 
themselves  will  become  imbued  with  life. 

The  importance  of  good  elocution  in  reading  is  at 
present  too  little  regarded.  Perhaps  rhetoric  was 
over-done  in  the  olden  time  and  we  are  suffering 
from  a  reaction  in  its  disfavor.  But  the  mere  pro- 


THE  RIGHT  METHOD  IX  READING     169 

nounciation  of  words  is  not  reading ;  bringing  to  light 
the  thought  words  carry  is  reading.  How  can  that 
be  accomplished  if  all  words  are  pronounced  in  the 
same  tone,  with  equal  vehemence,  and  without  in- 
flections ?  Such  exercises  are  the  dull  droning  of  the 
vocal  apparatus  only,  without  the  accompaniment  of 
the  brain. 

What  are  words  unaccompanied  by  thoughts,  to 
any  child?  Mere  bits  of  task-work,  to  be  slid  over 
and  forgotten  as  soon  as  possible.  But  take  any 
little  story  in  prose  or  verse,  and  bring  out  its  inner 
meaning  by  the  right  emphasis  and  it  becomes  dra- 
matic, spirited  and  interesting.  Half  a  dozen  sen- 
tences so  read  are  worth  as  a  lesson  many  pages  gone 
over  without  interest  in  their  contents.  Emphasis 
rightly  applied  is  the  very  soul  of  words,  and  no 
reading  is  comprehensible  without  it.  Comparatively 
few  people  are  accomplished  in  the  fine  art  of  read- 
ing aloud,  and  busy  mothers  usually  put  aside  the 
idea  of  attempting  to  instruct  their  children  in  even 
the  rudiments  of  elocution,  believing  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  subject  out  of  their  line.  This  is 
another  thing  mostly  left  to  the  school;  and  ordi- 
narily, very  badly  taught  there,  because  by  the  time 


170       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

the  child  arrives  the  teacher  finds  all  his  time  taken 
up  with  the  correction  of  faults  brought  about  by 
careless  habits.  But  if  mothers  could  be  convinced 
that  it  is  easily  within  their  powers  to  give  children 
excellent  elementary  knowledge  of  the  use  of  the 
voice  in  reading  aloud,  surely  they  would  not  shirk 
a  task  that  becomes  with  a  little  practise  a  real  pas- 
time ? 

I  can  only  give  here  the  briefest  outline  of  a  short 
course  of  such  lessons,  trusting  that  the  little  volume 
in  preparation  on  the  subject *  from  which  it  is 
taken  may  be  read  with  some  interest  by  those  who 
care  to  have  a  more  thorough  acquaintance  with  a 
beautiful  art.  The  first  business  in  reading  is  to 
bring  out  meaning.  Previous  to  bringing  it  out  we 
must  discover  it.  There  is  always  a  leading  idea  in 
every  sentence,  or  series  of  sentences ;  the  other  words 
being  used  simply  as  make-weights,  to  carry  on  the 
work  suggested  by  the  chief  agent.  Suppose  the 
mother  means  to  have  the  child  read  a  certain  little 
poem  aloud,  both  for  the  practise  in  word  recognition 
and  for  mental  improvement.  She  will  run  over  the 

i  Our  Mother  Tongue;  speech  and  reading  lessons  for  home 
and  school  practice.  Florence  Hull  Winterburn,  B.E.A. 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  HEADING     171 

verses  herself,  privately,  and  find  their  import,  then 
tell  the  child  what  the  subject  is  that  he  is  going 
to  read  about,  and  suggest  to  him  that  he  think  about 
that  while  he  reads.  With  his  mind  engaged  with 
the  more  important  matter  he  will  naturally  not  be 
taken  up  with  trifling  details  and  give  atrociously 
wrong  emphasis  by  making  minor  words  louder  and 
stronger  than  others.  Emphasis  is  naturally  pro- 
duced in  these  ways:  by  an  increase  of  strength  in 
the  voice,  or  by  either  a  lowering  or  a  rising  in  the 
pitch;  that  is,  by  a  distinct  contrast  with  the  sur- 
rounding words.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  bringing 
out  meanings.  The  important  word  is  separated  from 
its  companions,  sometimes  by  a  pause  before  and  after 
it,  sometimes  merely  by  a  rising  or  falling  inflection 
of  tone. 

It  will  be  \vell  for  the  mother  to  keep  in  mind,  al- 
though not  to  bother  the  little  child  with  such  regula- 
tions, the  three  principal  rules  governing  emphasis : 

Eirst,  that  the  leading  idea  of  a  new  thought  must 
be  brought  out. 

Second,  that  the  important  words  that  appear  re- 
quire some  emphasis. 

Third,  that  words  which  merely  carry  forward  the 


172       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

thought  or  are  explanatory,  are  not  to  be  emphasized, 
but  casually  used,  as  one  would  deal  with  unimpor- 
tant words  in  conversation. 

This  will  be  made  clearer  by  analyzing  a  little  set 
of  verses.     We  will  take  an  old  poem,  called 

AUNT  TABITHA 

whose  subject  is  the  difference  between  girls  in  the 
olden  time  and  modern  girls.  The  words  suggesting 
the  leading  idea  are  here  emphasized,  the  others  being 
merely  slid  along  without  marked  inflections  of  the 
voice. 

"  Whatever  I  do,  and  whatever  I  say, 
Aunt  Tabitha  tells  me  that  isn't  the  way; 
When  she  was  a  girl  (forty  summers  ago) 
Aunt  Tabitha  tells  me  they  never  did  so." 

Now,  the  tendency  of  the  child  will  be  to  bring  out 
constantly,  as  an  important  word,  the  name  of  the 
aunt,  which  is,  however,  told  in  the  title  and  remains 
in  the  mind,  so  that  it  does  not  require  repeated  em- 
phasis. Things  that  have  been  once  told  and  are  no 
longer  new,  are  not  to  be  emphasized.  What  we  are 
now  interested  in  is  what  the  aunt  says  and  thinks. 
The  next  verse  goes  forward  a  little,  bringing  in  the 


THE  EIGHT  METHOD  IN  HEADING     173 

ideas  of  the  niece.  So,  the  first  introduction  of  this 
personage  will  require  emphasis. 

"  Dear  aunt !  If  I  only  would  take  her  advice ! 
But  I  like  my  own  way,  and  I  find  it  so  nice! 
And  besides,  I  forget  half  the  things  I  am  told; 
But  they  will  all  come  back  to  me,  when  I  am  old." 

Observe  how  the  few  emphatic  words  carry  the  entire 
meaning  along,  so  that  all  the  others  may  be  slid 
over.  The  last  verse  contains  the  gist  of  the  whole, 
and  the  child  will  be  pleased  with  the  roguishness  of 
the  implication  of  the  aunt's  absurdity.  His  atten- 
tion may  be  drawn  to  the  meditative  tone  of  the 
phrase,  "  I  am  thinking  "  and  the  successive  emphatic 
words  referring  to  this  aunt's  progenitor. 

"  I  am  thinking,  if  Aunt  knew  so  little  of  sin, 
What  a  wonder  Aunt  Tabitha's  aunt  must  have  been ! 
And  her  grand-aunt  —  it  scares  me  —  how  shockingly  sad 
That  we  girls  of  to-day  are  so  FRIGHTFULLY  bad ! " 

The  little  child  of  four  or  five  enjoys  scarcely  any- 
thing so  much  as  recitation ;  and  the  period  when  this 
taste  is  at  its  height  is  the  mother's  opportunity  to 
train  his  voice  in  speaking  and  reading.  Let  her  begin 
by  teaching  him  how  to  manage  his  breath,  a  point  in 


174      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

which  the  ordinary  school  child  is  wholly  at  fault. 
Children  are  apt  to  waste  breath  by  mingling  it  with 
their  tones,  producing  what  is  called  the  "  aspirate 
tone."  Aspiration,  or  a  half  whispered  tone  is  un- 
pleasant and  irritating  to  the  vocal  organs.  It  arises 
often  from  bashfulness,  and  the  best  way  to  cure  it 
is  by  exercising  the  voice  in  the  "  pure  tone."  Who- 
ever once  masters  this  beautiful  tone  will  not  need 
much  further  instruction  in  the  fine  art  of  reading 
aloud.  Management  of  the  breath  is  most  important ; 
and  in  addition  to  the  benefit  to  the  voice  knowledge 
of  correct  breathing  has  a  decided  effect  on  the  health. 
The  first  thing  is  to  train  the  child  in  breathing  as 
deeply  as  possible  with  his  mouth  closed.  Then,  have 
him  open  his  mouth  and  draw  in  breath  through  his 
nose  at  the  same  time.  Next,  have  him  pronounce 
a  sentence,  letting  out  all  the  breath  with  the  words, 
and  breathe  in  again,  entirely  through  his  nostrils, 
while  his  mouth  is  open.  After  some  practise  he 
will  acquire  the  difficult  art  of  breathing  entirely 
through  the  nose  while  reading,  and  be  on  the  way 
toward  the  acquisition  of  the  pure  tone,  which  is 
entirely  free  from  nasality  and  aspiration. 

The  pure  tone  is  one  of  kindness  and  sweetness. 


THE  RIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING     175 

Our  old  professor  of  elocution  used  to  call  it  "  the 
Sunday  afternoon  tone,"  with  a  sly  hit  at  girls'  habit 
of  putting  on  a  beautiful  voice  with  their  glad  rags, 
when  they  expected  company.  Where  the  home  at- 
mosphere is  what  it  should  be  and  children  hear 
pleasantly  modulated  tones  from  their  elders  they  will 
fall  naturally  into  the  use  of  this  harmonious  tone. 

Harsh,  shrill  notes  are  with  children  the  result 
either  of  disease,  excitement  or  imitation.  Their 
bright,  thin  little  voices  lend  themselves  readily  to 
depicting  happy  moods,  and  the  literature  we  select 
for  them  to  read  should  deal  with  agreeable  incidents 
and  be  full  of  variety  and  interest.  A  poem  I  have 
found  very  attractive  is  "  Robert  of  Lincoln  "  which 
is  full  of  dramatic  effects  without  tragedy.  The 
little  bird  notes  at  the  end  of  each  verse  may  be  imita- 
tive, lending  additional  sprightliness  to  recitation. 

As  far  as  possible,  let  the  child  discover  the  author's 
meaning  for  himself.  When  he  has  learned  to  recog- 
nize most  of  the  words  in  ordinary  reading  matter  of 
a  simple  class,  he  may  be  encouraged  to  tell  you  the 
tale,  just  as  if  he  were  talking.  This  is  in  fact,  the 
secret  of  good  reading;  to  make  it  conversational. 
My  mother  was  a  beautiful  reader,  and  had  had  fine 


training  in  elocution  after  the  old  method,  which  did 
not  involve  the  knowledge  of  any  rules  that  would  en- 
able one  to  impart  knowledge  to  another ;  but  the  one 
suggestion  she  did  make  was  very  useful :  "  Always 
read  just  as  you  would  talk."  For  ordinary  reading 
there  is  no  better  rule.  Get  the  child  to  make  the 
meaning  of  something  plain  to  you;  he  is  to  explain 
what  he  himself  knows.  And  this  brings  us  to  the 
great  point  which  is  so  much  neglected:  training  in 
articulation. 

The  utterance  of  little  ones  even  in  the  best 
families,  is  usually  thick ;  the  words  running  together 
instead  of  standing  out  separately  and  distinctly. 
The  beauty  of  the  English  language  is  its  distinct- 
ness, and  its  lack  of  that  slurring  which  is  a  sort  of 
melody  in  the  Latin  tongue  but  spoils  our  stronger 
Saxon.  But  beautiful  pronunciation  does  not  come 
without  training.  Children  must  be  taught  to  shape 
their  mouths  to  pronounce  different  words,  some  re- 
quiring the  flat,  some  the  round  and  others,  the  long 
shape.  One  little  exercise  is  useful,  and  is  a  popular 
one  with  school-teachers,  but  much  more  beneficial 
when  taught  in  the  earlier  years,  before  children  be- 
come self-conscious. 


THE  RIGHT  METHOD  IN  READING     177 

Have  the  child  pronounce  the  three  sounds  "  OO, 
AH,  EE,"  with  the  mouth  in  the  three  different 
shapes,  first  in  the  round  shape,  secondly,  in  the 
broad  shape,  then  in  the  long  or  flattened  shape,  al- 
ways taking  a  deep  breath  before  beginning  and 
letting  out  all  the  air  with  the  words.  He  may  pro- 
nounce the  three  words  consecutively,  then  backward, 
thus;— "OO,  AH,  EE,— EE,  AH,  OO."  And  as 
many  times  as  he  wishes,  only  provided  that  he  does 
not  become  careless  and  make  his  mouth  take  a  wrong 
shape.  That  can  be  easily  avoided.  The  next  thing 
to  be  done  is  to  draw  his  attention  to  those  words 
taking  the  round,  the  broad  or  the  long  shape  of 
mouth,  and  train  him  to  adjust  his  lips  in  pronouncing 
them. 

Yes,  all  this  requires  care  and  some  time.  But  it 
is  only  one  little  lesson  at  a  time,  and  soon  over. 
What  we  have  to  do  in  education  is  to  get  our  child 
in  the  way  of  self -training.  When  a  mother  has  done 
her  very  best  she  is  not  responsible  for  the  way  a 
thing  turns  out  for  an  offspring  who  neglects  to  profit 
by  advantages  that  have  been  generously  offered. 
But  she  will  never  regret  the  effort  bestowed  on  any 
one  of  her  children,  even  if  the  result  is  not  strikingly 


ITS       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

successful,  since  no  one  knows  where  or  how  the  seed 
sown  in  infancy  will  germinate  and  grow  to  the  per- 
fect fruit,  perhaps  generations  after. 


CHAPTEE  XII 

SELF-EXPRESSION  THROUGH  DRAWING 

"  I  wish  you  to  be  persuaded  that  success  in  your  art  de- 
pends almost  entirely  on  your  industry;  but  the  industry  I 
recommend  is  not  that  of  the  hands  but  of  the  mind," —  SIR 
JOSHUA  REYNOLDS. 

THE  eyes,  unaided  by  reason,  give  us  very 
false  impressions  of  things.  Each  instant 
we  correct  our  first  impressions  by  an 
amended  idea  of  what  is  possible  and  probable;  ac- 
curacy and  certainty  depending  to  a  great  degree  upon 
the  range  of  our  experience.  The  extent  to  which  we 
are  dependent  upon  experience  is  proved  by  our  def- 
erence to  those  persons  who  Tcnow  localities,  sur- 
roundings and  scenes  to  which  we  are  strangers.  At 
sea  we  place  little  reliance  upon  our  own  vision  and 
much  upon  the  judgment  of  the  sea-going  man  whose 
eyes  are  not  bewildered  by  the  dazzle  and  shimmer 
of  moving  waters.  On  mountain  tops  we  estimate 

no  distance  without  consulting  the  guide  who  is  fa- 

179 


180       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

miliar  with  the  land.  When  in  art  galleries  and 
cathedrals  we  walk  softly,  venturing  few  criticisms 
until  we  have  heard  the  wisdom  of  better  judges,  and 
can  adjust  our  understanding  according  to  theirs.  We 
know  in  our  hearts,  that  our  unaided  senses  play  us 
strange  tricks;  that  much  touching,  handling,  meas- 
uring, must  corroborate  the  testimony  of  eyes  and 
ears  before  we  dare  accept  what  they  give  us  as 
truth. 

And  if  adults  are  thus  helpless  before  novel  fea- 
tures of  an  ever  changing  world,  how  much  more 
helpless  are  little  children,  whose  imaginations  are  not 
yet  controlled  by  reason,  and  who  have  no  experience 
to  fall  back  on  as  a  corrective  of  the  grotesque !  As 
soon  as  possible  we  ought  to  put  in  their  hands  a 
weapon  with  which  to  combat  riotous  fancy  which  con- 
stantly leads  their  wits  astray.  We  must  teach  them 
to  measure,  weigh  and  calculate  so  that  they  may  be 
able  to  judge  with  confidence  in  their  own  senses. 
We  should  train  them  to  reproduce  in  some  form, 
things  they  see  and  hear,  then  compare  their  first  ideas 
with  the  experience  of  others,  to  get  the  knack  of 
critical  observation  and  the  power  of  making  a  good 
judgment. 


SELF-EXPRESSION  181 

The  ordinary  parent  usually  corrects  a  child's 
wrong  impressions  by  a  simple  contradiction  of  his 
mistakes.  "  It  is  not  the  way  you  think,  but  this 
way."  Without  having  to  exercise  his  mind  at  all, 
the  young  person  merely  turns  his  ideas  somewhat  to 
suit  another  point  of  view,  and  philosophically  comes 
to  think  most  things  of  little  importance,  after  all. 
One  way  of  seeing  is  as  good  as  another;  and  saves 
trouble.  There  "are  an  astonishing  number  of  people 
in  the  world  whose  judgment  is  worth  nothing  be- 
cause they  have  never  been  accustomed  to  look  at 
things  with  a  single  eye  to  their  relations  with  other 
things :  they  see  what  they  like  to  see,  that  is  all. 

Now,  the  best  way  to  initiate  the  child  in  the  diffi- 
cult art  of  judging  values  —  without  which  knowl- 
edge men  and  women  are  helpless  when  it  comes 
to  dealing  with  business  —  is  to  let  him  experiment 
very  early  with  plastic  materials  which  he  can  turn 
and  twist  at  his  pleasure.  The  infantile  pursuit  of 
making  mud  pies  is  a  rich  experience  in  dexterity  if 
it  is  played  as  a  game  of  competition.  Which  one 
can  make  the  pie  that  is  roundest?  One  little  one 
compares  his  pie  with  that  of  his  neighbor,  sees 
something  to  amend  and  shapes  his  bit  of  mud  over 


182       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

again  more  cunningly.  Sea  sand  offers  another  means 
of  getting  self-education  in  artistic  values.  Caves 
and  houses  are  built  and  rebuilt  with  endless  patience, 
the  youthful  architect  continually  improving  on  his 
methods,  yet  scarcely  perceptibly,  since  sand  is  wil- 
ful and  limited  in  its  capacity  to  be  manipulated. 
Snow  is  better,  but  in  winter  the  "  peptic  stimulant " 
of  biting  wind  converts  all  action  into  sport,  and 
fewer  pretty  forms  are  constructed  than  forts. 

But  the  instinct  of  a  child  to  manipulate  some  soft 
stuff,  like  dough  or  putty,  leads  him  to  chase  every 
will-o'-the-wisp  of  opportunity  and  get  into  trouble 
with  his  unsympathetic  family.  Old  time  cooks  were 
indulgent  with  this  infantile  frenzy  and  allowed  a 
little  space  in  ample  kitchens  and  generous  bits  of 
cake  dough;  but  there  is  very  little  baking  at  home 
nowadays,  and  less  room  for  kitchen  chemistry  and 
the  plastic  arts.  Sweet  heaven  grant  that  home 
kitchens  and  the  dear  home  atmosphere  may  not  be 
altogether  swept  out  of  sight  by  certain  iconoclasts 
yclept  reformers !  The  children  would  be  the  losers 
by  any  scheme  that  lessened  the  wholesome  labors  of 
individual  homes,  whatever  the  advantage  to  their 
novelty-seeking  elders. 


SELF-EXPRESSION  183 

Dough  is  a  good  material  for  modeling.  I  taught 
my  own  little  ones  to  make  dough  dolls  and  animals 
before  they  were  old  enough  to  appreciate  the  real 
use  of  their  craft  and  merely  thought  of  eating  their 
creations  after  baking  them.  But  they  were  scarcely 
out  of  the  kindergarten  before  I  set  up  a  modeling 
table,  with  a  goodly  supply  of  white  putty,  and  we 
began  to  have  great  times  making  things.  In  due 
course  followed  a  visiting  teacher  from  the  Academy 
of  Design,  who  supervised  them  in  their  plays  and 
adroitly  turned  games  into  work.  Three  weekly 
lessons  from  her  with  the  aid  of  my  own  small  knowl- 
edge, gave  us  all  a  start  so  that  modeling  began  to 
be  a  real  delight,  and  we  fashioned  flowers,  fruits  and 
objects,  like  vases  and  cups  and  quaint  boxes ;  making 
some  very  nice  things  and  constantly  gaining  accuracy 
of  perception  and  confidence  in  our  own  judgment. 
The  modeling  table  was  an  experiment  station  where 
every  one  had  to  demonstrate  his  ideas.  If  one  be- 
lieved that  the  vase  to  be  modeled  was  of  such  and 
such  a  height  and  shape,  he  made  it  so,  and  only 
learned  his  mistakes  after  he  realized  that  somebody 
else  had  worked  according  to  a  better  idea  and  pro- 
duced better  results.  The  referee  was  always  Na- 


184      THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

ture ;  that  is,  the  flower  or  object  itself,  not  a  second- 
hand view  of  it  through  the  eyes  of  another  person. 
From  modeling  fco  drawing  was  the  most  natural  of 
transitions.  We  first  began  to  draw  things  we  had 
shaped,  and  found  this  quite  easy,  familiarity  hav- 
ing been  gained  with  the  forms  in  question  through 
creating  them  in  the  rough,  as  it  were,  with  clay,  so 
that  the  finer  use  of  the  pencil  seemed  only  pleasant 
progress.  As  the  fanciful  one  of  the  group  observed 
—  she  was  five  — "  First  we  have  the  thing,  and  then 
we  make  its  shadow."  It  was  absolutely  the  right 
idea,  for  drawing  is  but  shadowing  forth  reality. 
"  The  art  of  seeing  nature,  or  in  other  words,  the  art 
of  using  models,  is  in  reality  the  great  object,  the 
point  to  which  all  our  studies  are  directed,"  said 
Reynolds.  By  preceding  drawing  with  modeling 
these  children  learned  to  use  models  easily  and  deftly. 
Moreover,  the  pencil  became  a  treasure  to  be  appre- 
ciated, for  everything  had  to  be  shaped  first,  draw- 
ing it  being  the  reward  of  previous  efforts.  There 
was  no  tiresome  reiteration  of  faulty  pictures  — 
endless  chains  of  distorted  creatures  such  as  had  been 
transferred  from,  their  baby  brains  to  big  sheets  of 
brown  paper  in  the  days  before  they  learned  some- 


SELF-EXPRESSION  185 

thing  of  "  the  true  and  the  beautiful "  in  Nature. 
They  laughed  now,  at  those  treasured  sheets  of  waste 
paper;  yet  they  had  served  a  purpose,  too.  Amuse- 
ment comes  naturally  before  planned  work.  Prim- 
itive man  must  have  gambled  with  his  rough  ma- 
terials for  a  long  time  before  he  took  genuine  in- 
terest in  what  he  was  accomplishing  by  chance.  I 
believe  in  freedom  with  the  pencil  as  with  all  other 
tools  of  art  and  crafts.  As  soon  as  a  little  child 
is  old  enough  to  keep  it  out  of  his  mouth  and  off  the 
walls,  a  pencil  should  be  put  in  his  hands  to  experi- 
ment with.  When  he  tires  of  making  aimless  marks 
and  begins  to  try  to  shape  objects  one  general  direc- 
tion may  be  given  him:  to  try  to  draw  everything 
just  as  he  sees  it.  Don't  tell  him  that  the  table  has 
four  legs  nor  that  trees  must  be  rooted  in  the  ground ; 
let  him  find  out  these  facts  for  himself.  At  first, 
doubtless,  he  will  have  groves  of  trees  flying  in  the 
ambient,  and  clouds  lying  on  the  earth.  But  he  will 
come  soon  to  laughing  at  himself  and  get  around  to 
truth  by  making  mistakes.  Self-criticism  is  more 
valuable  than  any  teaching,  and  a  person  must  feel 
his  own  imperfections  before  he  aspires  to  better 
things.  I  think  a  child  of  genuine  sense  is  seldom 


186      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

satisfied  with  his  own  work,  but  he  puts  the  hest  face 
upon  it  in  order  to  be  taken  seriously.  To  be  laughed 
at  is  a  childish  horror,  and  every  one  should  be  very 
careful  not  to  bring  this  humiliation  upon  him.  It  is 
hard  to  realize  that  a  little  thoughtless  ridicule  of  any 
of  their  first  weak  attempts  at  art  may  result  in  for- 
ever blighting  the  personality  and  originality  of  the 
coming  man  or  woman.  But  the  initial  efforts  of  a 
mind  toward  independence  are  feeble  and  cowardly; 
industry  is  not  so  persistent  but  that  any  young  person 
may  easily  be  persuaded  to  desist  from  a  pursuit  that 
is  made  to  appear  beyond  his  powers.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  children's  little  drawings  tempt  to 
mirth,  but  Mr.  Sully  has  taught  us  to  regard  youthful 
caricatures  with  respect. 

Probably  nothing  is  held  in  higher  estimation 
now  by  enlightened  educators  than  drawing;  as  a 
means  of  developing  the  mind.  Teachers  use  the 
pencil  constantly  to  illustrate  their  subjects,  and  the 
child  uses  it  in  rude  but  graphic  fashion  to  reproduce 
his  impressions.  The  aim  is  to  train  children  to  ob- 
serve closely  and  remember  truthfully,  and  nothing 
could  more  admirably  further  this  purpose  than  the 
habit  of  calling  upon  them  to  describe  by  a  few 


SELF-EXPRESSION  187 

strokes  of  the  pencil  objects  that  have  been  brought 
to  their  attention.  Picture  making  is  an  occupation 
natural  to  man  in  his  simplest,  most  untaught  state, 
and  it  is  likewise  rfne  of  the  earliest  voluntary  pur- 
suits of  all  children. 

Until  a  few  years  ago  drawing  was  taught  as  an 
accomplishment,  and  was  looked  upon  somewhat  as- 
kance by  teachers  of  sterner  branches.  The  school 
boy  who,  like  poor  Tommy  Traddles,  was  addicted  to 
solacing  himself  after  discipline  by  producing  shoals 
of  skeletons  on  his  slate,  did  so  at  his  peril ;  and  the 
mechanical  genius  who  simply  could  not  resist  filling 
all  the  paper  he  could  borrow  with  engines  and  boats 
was  restricted  to  that  enjoyment  during  his  recess 
only. 

In  schools  for  girls  an  hour  or  so  a  week  was  given 
to  copying  the  model  drawings  contained  in  Warren's 
books,  and  after  hundreds  of  hours  spent  in  this 
spirited  employment  the  young  person  became  expert 
enough  to  make  a  faulty  copy  of  the  drawing  propped 
upon  her  desk,  and  then  threw  away  the  thing  with 
relief;  having  conceived  a  real  distaste  for  the  very 
name  of  drawing  as  an  art.  A  few  years  later  it  is 
probable  that  she  found  it  impossible  to  comply  with 


188       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

the  entreaty  of  her  little  one  to  draw  him  the  picture 
of  a  horse  and  wagon,  or  even  a  flower ! 

When  "  drawing  from  the  round  "  became  popular 
much  was  hoped  from  it,  but  here  too,  the  free-hand 
course  was  a  perpetual  copying  of  something  put  be- 
fore pupils.  They  were  shown  what  to  look  at  and 
how  to  look  at  it:  the  master  judged  for  them;  they 
had  no  choice  either  as  to  subject  or  treatment;  their 
faults  were  pointed  out,  and  they  learned  to  see  with 
the  eyes  of  the  teacher  instead  of  with  their  own. 
The  result  was  servility  in  treatment  and  a  deaden- 
ing of  original  power.  Even  the  avowed  purpose  of 
making  good  artists  was  frustrated  by  this  poor 
method.  An  observing  spectator  has  not  put  it  too 
strongly  when  he  declared :  — "  It  is  the  fault  of  all 
current  systems  that  they  limit  the  youthful  mind  to 
small  inventions.  All  who  propose  to  teach  or  learn 
art  in  any  form  should  seriously  consider  free-hand 
as  the  true  key  to  all  its  practise.  It  is  a  great 
stimulant  to  quickness  of  perception." 

The  aim  of  the  new  education  is  not  to  make  artists 
of  all  children  but  to  give  them  command  of  the  pencil 
as  of  the  pen,  to  use  as  a  mode  of  self-expression. 
The  mechanical  arts  are  closely  allied  to  drawing,  and 


SELF-EXPRESSION  189 

modeling,  wood-carving  and  bent  iron  work  are  de- 
lightfully taught  in  the  manual  training  classes  that 
now  follow  the  kindergarten  in  really  fine  schools. 
But  all  schools  that  put  forth  the  claim  to  be  consid- 
ered excellent  have  not  genuine  merit,  and  it  is  even 
more  necessary  now  than  it  used  to  be  before  systems 
were  so  complicated,  for  parents  to  use  great  discre- 
tion in  selecting  schools  and  teachers.  Even  where 
the  children  have  the  privilege  of  attending  an  ideal 
kindergarten  and  passing  on  in  due  course  to  manual 
training  classes,  much  remains  to  be  done  at  home  by 
the  mother's  instruction  and  encouragement.  I  repro- 
duce here  a  few  paragraphs  from  the  pen  of  Mrs.  May 
Lillian  Dean,  who  contributed  several  valuable  arti- 
cles on  the  subject  of  "  Handicrafts  in  the  Home  " 
to  my  magazine  Childhood  some  years  ago.  She 
worked  out  a  most  excellent  system  of  home  instruc- 
tion for  her  own  children  which  might  be  copied  with 
advantage  by  other  mothers. 

"  A  true  conception  of  the  reality  of  form,"  ob- 
serves Mrs.  Dean,  "  can  only  be  gained  through  mod- 
eling in  the  round.  Modeling  should  therefore  at 
least  go  hand  in  hand  with,  if  not  precede,  drawing, 
in  the  teaching  of  children.  Handling  the  clay  and 


190      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

an  interest  in  its  convertibility  into  known  forms  may 
precede  instruction.  One  little  boy  not  yet  tbree  de- 
lights in  the  horses  and  dogs  that  are  roughly  modeled 
for  him.  He  is  too  young  to  attempt  them  yet  for 
himself  but  is  beginning  to  show  familiarity  with  the 
method,  by  altering  the  shape  of  those  already  made 
and  mending  those  which  meet  with  mishaps. 

"  Modeling  in  the  round  aims  at  producing  the  ac- 
tual forms  in  their  true  relations  to  one  another,  as  in 
a  bust,  statuette,  statue  or  group.  Modeling  in  relief 
aims  at  producing  the  appearance  of  the  round  ob- 
tained by  preserving  relatively  true  proportions  in 
the  projection  or  thickness  above  the  background." 

This  is,  I  believe,  much  more  difficult,  and  properly 
comes  after  considerable  experience  has  been  gained 
in  round  modeling.  Making  flowers  and  fruit  on  a 
plaque  of  plaster  is  exceedingly  pretty  and  interesting 
work,  and  my  own  little  daughter  produced  several 
of  such  plaques  at  the  age  of  six  years,  which  are 
creditable  to  her  industry  and  skill. 

"  Clay,"  continues  Mrs.  Dean,  "  is  the  universal 
material  used  for  modeling.  The  common  gray  clay 
which  costs  from  two  to  three  cents  a  pound,  is  all 
that  is  necessary  for  the  purpose.  It  dries  crumbly 


SELF-EXPRESSION  191 

and  cannot  be  baked,  but  for  round,  bulky  subjects 
such  as  an  apple,  where  there  are  no  thin  edges  to 
crack  away,  it  may  be  allowed  to  dry,  and  will  last 
until  some  accident  happens.  It  is  used  by  artists 
for  work  which  is  to  be  cast  in  plaster,  and  must  be 
kept  well  moistened  with  water  as  long  as  the  work  is 
in  process,  and  cast  before  it  has  been  allowed  to 
harden.  The  clay  should  be  kept  in  a  stone  crock, 
so  it  will  retain  its  moisture. 

"  Thumbs  are  the  best  tools,  but  it  may  be  necessary 
to  supplement  them  with  some  small  wooden  tools, 
to  secure  effects.  Poor  tools  cannot  give  satisfaction, 
so  choose  those  of  firm  boxwood." 

The  three  or  four  essential  small  implements  may 
be  purchased  at  any  art  store  for  a  trifling  sum. 

"  Choose  bulky  objects  for  modeling  in  the  round, 
and  for  relief  work  subjects  which  are  broad  in  char- 
acter, by  which  I  mean  surfaces  not  too  much  cut 
up.  Very  young  children  enjoy  making  marbles. 
They  break  off  a  piece  of  clay,  press  it  between  the 
first  fingers  and  thumbs  of  both  hands  and  then  roll 
it  round  and  round  between  the  palms.  No  two  mar- 
bles are  alike  and  the  children  find  a  charm  in  the 
variety  of  size.  The  next  step  may  be  to  an  apple  as 


192       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

a  subject  to  be  copied  in  clay.  This  may  be  given  to 
children  of  six  and  upwards,  and  the  lesson  should  be 
conducted  in  the  following  manner :  Place  the  apple 
on  the  table  in  front  of  the  child  and  a  small  board 
on  which  is  a  lump  of  clay.  Then  say,  e  Look  at 
this  apple  and  tell  me  what  shape  it  is  ? '  '  Round,' 
will  be  the  prompt  reply.  '  Is  it  quite  round  ? '  you 
will  ask,  and  he  will  then  be  led  to  discover  how  and 
where  it  differs  from  a  sphere  and  why.  When  the 
form  has  been  well  studied  he  may  begin  by  breaking 
off  a  piece  of  clay  about  the  size  of  a  walnut,  and  then 
add  smaller  pieces  to  it  until  it  begins  to  look  like 
the  apple.  When  it  is  nicely  rounded  it  is  better  to 
hold  it  in  the  hand  instead  of  letting  it  remain  on 
the  board.  The  hollows  for  the  eye  and  stalk  can  be 
fashioned  by  means  of  the  fingers,  and  the  eye  itself 
finished  by  the  help  of  a  small  stick  or  tool.  For  the 
stalk  a  real  twig  is  best,  just  poked  in  where  it  ought 
to  be,  after  the  hollow  has  been  nicely  smoothed  and 
rounded  by  the  fingers.  In  precisely  the  same  way 
let  the  boy  proceed  to  make  clay  copies  of  similar 
objects, —  a  pear,  lemon,  potato,  musk  melon,  a  bunch 
of  three  or  five  bananas,  a  bunch  of  grapes,  and  so 
on." 


SELF-EXPKESSION  193 

"  Small  plaster  casts  are  very  inexpensive,  and  good 
copies  of  small  animals,  heads  in  relief,  profiles  and 
grotesques  can  be  bought  for  twenty-five  cents  and  up- 
wards." 

Mrs.  Dean  most  sensibly  observes  that  continual 
comparison  with  one's  model  is  necessary  for  good 
work,  and  the  child  should  be  admonished  not  to  be 
satisfied  with  anything  less  than  really  good  results. 
"  Encourage  your  children  always  to  press  on,  in  hopes 
of  better  results  and  higher  attainments." 

After  some  skill  has  been  attained  in  modeling 
drawing  naturally  follows,  as  the  modeled  objects  of- 
fer excellent  subjects  for  copying.  Unless  the  child 
is  gifted  with  some  talent  in  this  line  he  will  not  be 
enthusiastic  at  first  about  the  use  of  the  pencil  after 
the  livelier  practise  of  modeling.  In  that  case  it  will 
be  well  not  to  urge  him,  but  to  win  his  interest  by 
holding  out  a  reward  for  nice  work  with  the  pencil. 
Where  competition  does  not  enter  in,  I  believe  in 
the  idea  of  appropriate  reward  for  hard,  earnest  work. 
Drawing  especially,  is  too  beautiful  an  art  to  be  made 
a  task ;  it  should  be  associated  with  pleasure. 

Violet-le-duc,  one  of  the  best  modern  authorities 
in  this  field,  lays  great  stress  upon  geometry  as  the 


foundation  for  drawing.  To  carry  on  the  education 
of  a  child  in  the  way  he  suggests  a  parent  would  need 
a  profound  knowledge  of  science  and  art.  But  his 
principles  are  valuable  and  some  of  his  exercises  are 
simple  enough  for  use  in  all  homes.  The  child  of  six 
years  —  some  at  a  younger  age  —  may  be  taught  to 
make  cubes  of  paper  and  then  to  copy  them;  first 
singly,  then  all  together.  He  can  collect  leaves  of 
different  shapes  and  draw  them ;  also,  disks  cut  from 
a  rubber  tube,  pressed  into  the  form  of  a  honeycomb, 
and  he  will  thus  learn  why  Nature  teaches  her  bees 
to  construct  their  cells  in  this  compact  form.  The 
question  he  should  constantly  be  led  to  ask  is, —  why 
does  this  thing  have  this  particular  shape  instead  of 
some  other  ?  By  perceiving  that  function  is  every- 
where the  first  consideration  he  will  become  imbued 
with  the  deepest  truth  of  art,  that  beauty  is  harmony 
between  inward  purpose  and  outward  form;  an  ex- 
pression of  the  perfection  of  these  two. 

I  myself,  incline  greatly  toward  the  geometrical 
basis  for  drawing,  and  some  of  our  best  schools  of 
design  use  it;  but  justice  compels  me  to  allude  to  a 
system  which  has  much  vogue  in  France  and  is  en- 
dorsed by  Delacroix.  It  is  said  that  it  enables  all 


SELF-EXPRESSION  195 

parents,  without  understanding  drawing  themselves, 
to  teach  their  children.  It  is  the  Calve  method  of 
drawing  from  memory,  and  this  is  the  starting  point 
of  the  system ;  —  A  piece  of  gauze  is  placed  over  a 
cast  and  on  the  gauze  a  faint  tracing  made  of  the 
object  beneath,  exactly  reproducing  it.  Then,  this 
tracing  is  set  up  as  a  model  and  copied,  the  copy 
being  constantly  measured  against  the  original  and 
faults  corrected ;  the  pupil  learning  both  outline  and 
perspective  by  this  continual  comparison.  The  third 
step  is  to  put  aside  the  copies  and  draw  the  object 
from  memory. 

The  system  may-  do  all  that  is  claimed  for  it,  but 
although  it  offers  possibilities  in  the  way  of  a  fas- 
cinating pursuit  to  girls  and  boys  of  genuine  artistic 
talent,  I  doubt  its  usefulness  to  the  general  student, 
and  it  is  manifestly  unsuited  to  children  under  ten 
or  twelve  years.  Any  one  wishing  to  know  more  of 
the  method  may  be  referred  to  Madame  Calve's  charm- 
ing books. 

Drawing  from  memory  is  one  of  the  most  difficult 
things  in  the  world  to  do.  Even  professional  artists 
find  that  they  must  rely  largely  upon  hasty  jottings 
made  upon  the  spot,  as  suggestions  for  pictures. 


196       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

They  keep  memorandum  books,  as  most  people  do,  but 
their  artistic  short-hand  is  only  comprehensible  by 
themselves.  Those  who  are  not  artists  need  to  look 
closely  at  what  they  wish  to  recollect,  for  they  must 
depend  upon  their  memory  to  bring  back  details  to 
them.  It  is  an  excellent  corrective  of  superficial 
observation  to  sketch  a  scene  as  we  think  we  saw  it, 
and  afterward  return  to  that  scene  and  take  another 
view.  It  is  a  training  both  in  accuracy  and  humility, 
for  we  learn  how  easy  it  is  to  deceive  ourselves  as  to 
what  we  believe  we  have  observed. 

The  smallest  child  should  be  encouraged  to  try 
to  use  the  pencil,  if  merely  to  scribble  at  first.  Fa- 
cility in  using  the  fingers  is  valuable,  and  if  awk- 
wardness can  be  overcome  very  early  so  much  the 
better.  I  think  that  previous  to  any  formal  instruc- 
tion little  ones  should  be  let  alone  to  depict  their 
own  fanciful  ideas.  Sometimes  they  accidentally 
strike  out  curiously  correct  outlines  of  objects,  in 
their  free  and  spontaneous  efforts.  But  we  must  keep 
in  mind  that  the  use  of  drawing  to  people  in  general 
is  not  so  much  to  teach  art  ideas  as  to  train  them  in 
accuracy  and  precision.  Scientific  precision  results 
from  habitual  use  of  the  pencil  to  illustrate  ideas. 


SELF-EXPEESSION  197 

Photography  has  to  some  extent  replaced  the  older 
habit  of  sketching  scenes  and  countries  travelers  wish 
to  remember,  and  the  camera  is  a  delightful  com- 
panion on  a  journey.  But  the  camera  cannot  snap  a 
thought,  and  the  skilful  pencil  can.  Language  can 
be  loose  and  vague,  and  the  listener's  mind  get  but  a 
faint  conception  of  what  is  meant,  but  a  few  bold 
strokes  of  the  pencil  brings  the  whole  matter  quickly 
before  one.  Here  is  another  important  factor  to  the 
child.  Finding  that  what  he  drawrs  means  just  what 
it  represents  and  not  something  else,  he  learns  not 
to  put  down  anything  he  does  not  intend  to  show. 
He  becomes  truthful,  as  art  is  truthful.  Imaginative 
drawing,  or  romancing  with  the  pencil  is  a  fascinating 
pastime  which  sensitive  children  will  usually  indulge 
in  for  their  personal  amusement  only.  When  joined 
with  some  knowledge  of  outline,  it  is  useful  to  the 
young  person,  as  accustoming  him  to  depict  the 
thought  that  possesses  him,  and  so  make  it  clearer  to 
himself.  Let  the  child  draw  at  his  good  will  and 
pleasure,  without  fearing  that  he  will  turn  out  an 
artist.  If  he  gains  mastery  with  the  pencil  he  may 
turn  out  a  man  of  acute  common  sense. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS 

"  The  most  general  statement  that  we  can  arrive  at  is  that 
geography  deals  with  men  in  their  whole  physical  and  so- 
cial environment.  The  whole  man  with  the  sum  total  of 
influences  brought  to  bear  upon  him  is  the  subject  of  geog- 
raphy."—  McMuRRY. 

THE  broad  general  culture  which  the  child 
can  get  by  right  home  training  will  have  the 
great  advantage  of  preventing  a  certain  nar- 
rowing of  his  mind  by  the  reiteration  of.  a  catalogue  of 
facts  that  are  the  essential  equipment  of  school  routine. 
One  of  them  is  the  insistence  upon  attention  to  im- 
mediate surroundings  to  the  detriment  of  interest  in 
those  that  are  more  remote,  but  of  equal  if  not  greater 
importance.  There  has  come  about  recently  a  spe- 
cial kind  of  method  of  teaching  geography  and  his- 
tory, meant  —  with  the  best  intentions  —  to  imbue 
the  pupil  with  the  sentiment  of  patriotism,  and  give 
him  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  earth  in  its  com- 

198 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  199 

mercial  aspect ;  to  lead  him  to  believe,  in  a  word,  that 
his  native  land  is  the  most  wonderful,  unique,  mar- 
velous earth  country,  and  that  his  own  state,  his 
particular  place  of  residence,  the  buildings  that  hap- 
pen to  belong  to  his  town,  are  the  most  engrossing 
subjects  of  interest  that  can  engage  him. 

Now,  considering  that  schools  are  very  largely 
made  up  of  pupils  of  foreign  origin,  who  should  grow 
into  liking  for  their  adopted  country  and  learn  to  un- 
derstand her  political  institutions,  this  policy  is  en- 
tirely sane  and  wise;  but  from  the  point  of  view  of 
assuming  that  the  mind  of  a  child  is  naturally  more 
interested  in  details  than  in  generals,  in  what  is  near 
at  hand  than  in  what  is  far  away,  and  consequently, 
more  able  to  concentrate  its  attention  on  New  York 
city,  for  instance,  than  on  Athens  or  London,  I  think 
it  is  erroneous.  If  present  day  children  are  deficient 
in  imagination  and  in  sympathy  with  past  civiliza- 
tions the  fault  lies  with  our  excessive  zeal  to  make 
them  practical.  We  clip  the  budding  wings  of  their 
idealism  and  later  on,  wonder  why  they  cannot  fly. 

There  is  an  element  of  the  Gradgrind  system  in 
modern  schools  which  it  is  almost  hopeless  to  attempt 
to  alter  at  present;  consequently,  we  must  look  to 


200       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

home  training  to  correct  its  narrowing  influence.  By 
following  out  a  course  of  instruction  that  is  natural 
and  in  accord  with  methods  that  have  been  found  to 
favor  breadth  of  mind  and  generous  culture  mothers 
may  fortify  the  characters  of  their  children  against 
a  too  prevalent  egotism.  Contrary  to  prevailing 
opinions  I  contend  that  to  all  unspoiled  children  the 
remote  has  a  fascination ;  that  big,  general  ideas  take 
more  hold  on  their  minds  than  trifling  facts ;  that  an- 
cient history,  picturesquely  presented,  explains  the 
present  to  them ;  that  the  idea  of  the  earth  as  a  whole 
is  as  acceptable  as  the  offer  of  a  boulevard  vista,  end- 
ing in  a  flat-iron  building;  and  that  they  grasp  with 
more  alacrity  the  suggestion  of  a  scheme  of  creation 
in  the  universe  than  of  a  spool  manufactory. 

All  kinds  of  knowledge  have  their  time  and  place. 
It  is  an  excellent  plan  to  familiarize  a  child  with 
every  form  of  mechanism;  to  show  him  watch  fac- 
tories, mints  and  banks,  all  the  baby  streams  of  his 
native  town,  mills  and  logging  camps.  The  out-door 
excursions  which  progressive  schools  have  substituted 
for  more  formal  geography  lessons  are  useful,  but 
chiefly  as  a  means  of  developing  the  child's  perceptive 
faculties  and  memory.  I  doubt  but  that  he  will  after 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  201 

so  much  time  spent  in  similar  studies,  lose  all  interest 
in  geography  in  its  larger  aspect;  the  mind  clogged 
with  a  multitude  of  details  becomes  unable  to  general- 
ize. 

Indeed,  I  have  found  that  some  very  bright  young 
persons,  graduates  of  our  best  high  schools,  have  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  many  matters  that  have  never, 
in  the  course  of  my  life,  had  any  bearing  on  sociology 
as  I  know  it,  but  they  have  the  vaguest  ideas  about 
the  people  of  eastern  lands  and  could  not  tell  you, 
to  save  them,  what  is  the  chief  city  of  Poland  or  who 
Zoroaster  was.  Not  material  items,  of  course,  but 
sample  facts  of  their  lack  of  interest  in  what  has  not 
come  under  their  immediate  observation.  That  is, 
their  understandings  are  restricted;  their  sympathies 
contracted  to  what  they  have  been  taught  to  consider 
useful.  It  does  not  matter  to  them  who  founded 
Carthage;  but  it  is  exciting  that  Bryan  refuses  to 
disclose  his  views  on  the  Mexican  situation.  Again, 
politics  have  their  right  and  proper  place ;  the  privi- 
lege of  hearing  the  daily  news  discoursed  in  the  home 
is  enlightening  and  edifying ;  but  all  this  is  not  geog- 
raphy in  its  higher  aspect. 

Macaulay   declared  — "  All  the  triumphs  of  truth 


202       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

and  genius  over  prejudice  and  power,  in  every  coun- 
try and  every  age,  have  been  the  work  of  Athens." 
Is  it  not  something  to  be  able  to  trace  back  to  its 
source  the  forces  that  have  molded  civilizations  and 
developed  modern  intelligence?  Is  not  the  WHY 
of  life  more  important  than  the  mere  IS  ?  The  child 
would  say,  if  he  could  explain,  that  it  is  more  impor- 
tant ;  and  to  him  much  more  deeply  interesting.  He 
will  not  be  able  to  help  learning,  by  mere  propinquity, 
most  of  the  facts  about  his  immediate  environment 
that  are  essential  to  him;  when  he  goes  to  school  he 
will  be  obliged  to  study  all  these  material  things. 
But  probably  he  will  scarcely  hear  the  name  of  Athens 
or  of  Mesopotamia,  the  cradle  of  the  race,  for  many 
long  years,  until  he  is  far  along  in  his  course,  and 
his  early  zeal  for  the  picturesque  features  of  history 
has  changed  into  a  jaded  dislike  of  everything  that 
does  not  help  him  to  pass  his  "exams."  It  is  to  be 
able  to  pass  "  exams  "  after  all,  and  not  to  gain  cul- 
ture, that  the  child  studies  at  school.  And  after 
he  has  passed  them,  what  then  ?  "  Examinations," 
said  Guyot,  "  means  permission  to  forget." 

Will  not  the  mother  see  to  it  that  her  child,  likely 
to  starve  away  from  home,  for  opportunity  to  know 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  203 

mankind  in  his  social  relations  with  the  universe, 
gets,  early  in  his  career,  nourishment  for  his  natural 
interest  in  his  race?  The  awakening  of  the  feeling 
of  kinship  with  mankind,  the  pleasure  of  discovering 
the  beginning  of  things,  as  revealed  in  ancient  history, 
even  so  far  back  as  the  story  of  the  wanderings  of  the 
Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  satisfaction  of 
comprehending  something  of  the  bigness  of  the  earth, 
will  be  owing  to  her.  Warm  and  living  from  his 
mother's  lips  fall  those  suggestive  words  that  are 
to  make  the  basis  of  all  the  child's  knowledge  of 
the  richest  of  the  sciences  —  sociology.  From  her 
he  learns  to  love  or  to  hate  mankind ;  to  become  in- 
terested in  others,  or  to  grow  wrapped  in  himself,  in- 
different to  humanity.  How  powerful  then,  is  her 
influence  over  his  future !  Upon  her  intelligence  and 
kindness  depend  to  a  large  extent,  the  attitude  he 
will  maintain  toward  people  and  to  the  future  as 
well  as  the  past  No  other  study  is  so  intimately 
connected  with  family  life  as  geography,  including 
its  correlative,  history  of  races ;  no  other  so  essentially 
the  province  of  parents. 

What  an  incomparable  advantage  it  is  to  a  child  to 
hear  from  his  father's  lips  tales  of  his  forefathers, 


204      THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

when  the  country  was  young !  The  innate  desire  to 
grasp  some  spot  on  earth  as  belonging  to  and  identi- 
fied with  one's  own  family,  is  thus  satisfied.  Here 
our  grandsire  cleared  the  forest  and  built  his  house, 
here  his  sons  hunted  bears  and  defended  themselves 
against  the  revengeful  Indians.  Proud  and  happy 
are  the  small  descendants  of  the  early  settlers  when 
later  on,  they  come  across  the  names  of  Revolutionary 
heroes  that  thev  knew  as  ancestors.  But  with  finer 
altruism  unperverted  child  nature  thrills  with  joy  in 
the  contemplation  of  greatness  wherever  exhibited. 
It  needs  only  the  right  touch  to  set  flowing  the  springs 
of  enthusiasm  and  sympathy. 

Let  the  mother  read  the  page  of  Greek  history 
which  tells  of  the  heroic  Spartan  boy  silent  and  smil- 
ing under  pain  of  the  foxes'  bite  and  see  if  it  is  not  a 
salutary  lesson  in  endurance.  Let  her  dwell  upon 
the  dangers  and  difficulties  overcome  by  the  early  set- 
tlers of  our  land,  and  point  out  how  all  our  ease  and 
prosperity  is  built  upon  their  wise  and  courageous 
plans.  But  do  not  neglect  to  tell  them  that  when 
America  was  fighting  for  her  freedom  it  was  not  her 
mother  country  she  was  fighting  but  the  perverted 
laws  of  England's  selfish  rulers.  The  best  and  most 


EAELY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  205 

devoted  Englishmen  were  friends  of  their  American 
brothers  who  sought  to  carry  out  in  the  new  land  the 
noble  ideal  of  Anglo-Saxon  government.  It  will 
charm  the  children  to  learn  that  our  New  England 
town  meetings  only  repeated  the  "  folk-meet "  of  old 
Britain ;  that  even  the  dissimilar  custom  of  our  south- 
ern states  merely  carried  out  the  newer  ways  of  the 
mother  country  in  their  different  idea  of  parish  and 
county  government.  The  cultivation  of  this  feeling 
of  inter-relationship  of  the  nations  of  the  world,  while 
starting  him  out  in  a  broad  view  of  life,  will  in  no 
wise  lessen  his  love  for  his  own  country,  any  more 
than  knowing  that  he  has  uncles  and  aunts  and  grand- 
parents and  cousins  of  all  degrees  of  removal  lessen 
his  affection -for  his  father  and  mother. 

Women  will  need  to  renew  their  knowledge  of 
general  history  a  little  in  order  to  be  prepared  to 
answer  the  eager  questions  of  their  children  about  all 
the  interesting  facts  suggested  by  such  studies,  but 
a  short  course  of  reading  should  be  all  that  is  neces- 
sary, for  the  chief  thing  is  to  give  the  young  mind 
principles  and  ideas  to  work  on;  the  facts  can  be 
studied  out  later  on.  The  history  of  the  world's  de- 
velopment is  a  wondrous  story,  full  of  romance  and 


206       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

excitement,  if  presented  from  the  standpoint  of  evo- 
lution. I  am  not  at  all  certain  about  the  moving 
picture  shows  being  the  best  sources  of  information 
as  to  the  habits  of  the  early  cave-dwellers.  But  I  do 
know  that  Sir  John  Lubbock's  tiny  book  on  primitive 
man  is  valuable  and  appropriate  as  nursery  lore. 
And  then,  apart  from  all  religious  signification,  what 
is  more  extraordinary  and  impressive  than  certain 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  bring  before  the  im- 
agination realization  of  the  early  struggles  of  man- 
kind ?  From  that  to  the  beautifully  simplified  tales 
of  Herodotus,  taking  in  a  slight  reference  to  crude 
forms  of  Pantheism  and  idol-worship,  is  but  a  natural 
step.  "  History  is  philosophy  teaching  by  ex- 
amples," and  also,  it  is  the  purest  lesson  in  the  broad 
religion  of  humanity  that  we  ever  get.  I  am  not  so 
zealous  an  advocate  of  biography  as  are  some  educat- 
ors; to  me  it  appears  that  a  single  individual,  taken 
out  from  his  environment  and  into  the  lime-light, 
sheds  his  racial  relations.  Absorbing  interest  in  per- 
sonalities is  something  not  to  be  too  much  encouraged 
in  children.  They  have  that  by  instinct.  We 
should  constantly  have  for  an  aim  the  lifting  them 
out  of  the  narrowness ;  the  extending  of  their  limita- 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  20T 

tions  of  view  and  opinion.  That  is  the  especial  rea- 
son for  beginning  the  study  of  geography  with  refer- 
ence to  astronomy  rather  than  to  the  most  adjacent 
canal.  The  child  who  is  early  habituated  to  look 
up  rather  than  down,  for  his  insight  into  reasons  for 
existing  things,  who  is  early  trained  to  conceive  of 
design  in  the  universe,  beyond  the  scope  of  that  ma- 
terial government  which  proscribes,  prohibits  and 
commands  matters  relating  to  parks  and  buildings, 
will  never  get  mistaken  notions  of  God  as  a  gigantic 
policeman;  nor  have  a  contempt  for  those  who  wear 
different  complexions,  outside  or  within. 

The  great  lesson  of  history  is  that  of  tolerance  and 
love  for  all  mankind.  And  geography  merely  ex- 
plains its  sister  science,  and  makes  concrete  its  great 
principles.  Nothing  better  has  been  said  about  edu- 
cation than  the  saying  of  Herbart,  the  most  incorrigi- 
ble idealist,  as  he  was  the  most  practical  of  tutors: 
"  The  final  aim  of  instruction  is  morality.  But  the 
nearer  aim  which  instruction  in  particular  must  set 
before  itself  in  order  to  reach  the  final  one  is,  Many- 
sidedness  of  interest." 

In  its  variety  of  interest  geography  and  history 
are  unsurpassed.  I  speak  of  them  together,  for  they 


208       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

are  one  and  inseparable.  One  cannot  think  of  a  be- 
ing without  a  habitat;  nor  of  a  habitat  without  a 
possible  creature  belonging  to  it.  If,  as  the  baby  said, 
"  Everything  is  Nature  excepting  the  houses,"  we 
may  aver  that  everything  is  geography  excepting 
what  is  history.  Place  and  time  are  all  of  living. 

How  early  should  we  begin  to  teach  the  child  geog- 
raphy and  history  ?  One  authority  says,  at  the  end 
of  the  first  year !  It  must  be  something  then,  as  our 
French  cousins  express  it,  that  "  teaches  itself."  But 
the  authority  in  question  merely  meant  that  the 
mother  may  then  begin  to  tell  Grimm's  household 
tales  to  the  baby.  That  is  very  well,  but  I  cannot 
exactly  agree  with  this  writer  in  calling  fairy  tales 
real  history.  They  have  their  place,  but  the  first 
strong  impression  upon  the  child's  tender  mind  should 
be  made  with  sturdier  stuff.  Perhaps  with  stories 
from  the  classics.  The  Odysseus  may  be  tried  upon 
the  child  of  four  or  five,  if  parents  are  prepared  to 
meet  all  the  questions  which  will  assail  them  about 
the  heathen  gods.  The  natural  method  is  to  begin 
with  primitive  man  and  with  the  earth  as  it  was  in 
his  day.  It  has  some  difficulties,  in  the  way  of 
geographical  description,  but  they  may  be  easily  over- 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  209 

come  by  avoiding  detailed  relations.  Make  the  story 
anecdotal ;  continually  bringing  in  unexpected  bits  of 
odd  lore,  such  as  can  be  gleaned  from  any  good  nat- 
ural history,  and  which  serve  to  fasten  the  hearer's 
mind  on  the  subject.  Recollecting  the  illustration 
will  help  him  to  recall  the  fact.  I  think  we  have 
to  wrap  up  almost  every  idea  that  is  not  immediately 
related  to  our  own  interests,  in  sugar.  The  most  ac- 
complished preacher  sweetens  his  sermon  with  illus- 
tration; the  successful  lecturer  does  not  despise  the 
funny  story  that  hits  the  mark.  And  an  audience 
goes  away  pleased  with  the  wit  of  a  lecturer  when  it- 
would  otherwise  be  indifferent  to  the  wisdom. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  earlier  lessons  in  geography 
begin  in  the  kindergarten;  at  that  time  when  little 
ones  puddle  in  the  sand,  building  roads  and  rivers 
and  mock  cities.  They  get  concrete  notions  then 
wThich  may  be  supplemented  when  they  leave  kind- 
ergarten to  spend  several  intervening  years  at  home 
under  their  mother's  training,  before  returning  to 
an  advanced  grade  of  school.  At  four  or  five  years 
they  can  be  instructed  without  formal  teaching,  by 
stories  and  games,  and  especially  by  conversation. 
Trumbull,  who  wrote  an  interesting  treatise  upon 


210       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

training  the  mind  in  infancy,  says :  "  It  is  by  conver- 
sation upon  actual  objects  and  feelings  that  the  parent 
first  calls  forth  the  glimmering  intelligence  of  the 
child.  By  this  method  alone  it  is  possible  to  give  the 
child  a  stimulus  to  attention;  for  it  interposes  noth- 
ing between  the  child  and  the  living  voice  of  his  in- 
structor to  prevent  the  full  play  of  that  mutual  sym- 
pathy which  is  the  very  breath  of  school  life." 

It  is  astonishing  how  much  information  can  be  im- 
parted to  children  simply  by  conversation.  The 
privilege  of  being  admitted  to  the  family  circle,  when 
by  good  fortune  it  happens  to  be  composed  of  culti- 
vated persons  who  have  had  considerable  experience, 
is  an  inestimable  piece  of  luck  for  the  child.  Such 
bare,  cold  facts  as  the  habits  of  the  people  in  Alaska 
or  India  take  on  vivid  interest  when  coming  fresh 
from  the  lips  of  a  traveled  uncle  or  cousin;  a  single 
curious  occurrence  that  may  have  happened  to  them 
suffices  to  fix  a  dozen  correlative  circumstances  that 
might  have  otherwise  never  been  learned.  Every- 
thing that  can  be  learned  outside  of  books  is  a  boon. 
That  mother  is  wise  who  reads  for  herself  and  talks 
out  with  her  children  what  she  has  studied  for  their 
benefit. 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  211 

I  believe  in  little  ones  having  a  sand  pile  out  in 
the  back  yard,  not  only  for  play  but  for  educational 
purposes,  but  every  one  has  not  a  back  yard,  nowa- 
days. A  sand  table  in  the  kitchen  or  nursery  an- 
swers the  purpose,  and  may  be  used  to  illustrate  many 
ideas  gleaned  from  the  talks  on  geography  and  his- 
tory. The  child  must  be  taught  the  points  of  the 
compass  sometime;  the  sooner  the  better.  He  must 
learn  the  relation  of  the  sun  and  moon  to  the  earth, 
and  why  not  let  him  learn  while  the  fun  of  represent- 
ing these  sons  and  daughters  of  the  universe  affords 
him  spontaneous  amusement  ? 

A  little  collection  of  minerals  and  foreign  curiosi- 
ties is  valuable  as  a  means  of  inspiring  interest  in 
strange  lands  and  people.  What  the  child  can  see 
and  handle  has  an  actual  importance  to  him,  yet  never 
should  there  be  neglected  the  truth  that  the  concrete 
is  not  the  whole  thing  to  any  natural  child ;  he  craves, 
as  a  lover  the  moonlight,  an  artist  the  sight  of  purple 
clouds,  the  atmosphere  of  fairyland  thrown  as  a  glis- 
tening veil  over  the  too  bald  facts  of  the  near-by 
world.  Eomance  in  history  is  eagerly  welcomed  by 
every  intelligent  adult  and  it  is  received  with  enthu- 
siasm by  children.  Since  it  is  so  human  to  crave  the 


212       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

unusual  and  wonderful  it  is  well  that  there  is  so  much 
of  both  in  Nature  and  life.  We  have  only  to  find 
and  appropriate  it.  The  gift  of  finding  it  does  not 
belong  to  all;  but  even  the  prosaic  woman  may  cul- 
tivate in  herself  something  of  fancy  and  liveliness  so 
that  her  instructions  may  not  be  flat  and  common- 
place. A  few  visits  to  the  best  primary  schools  will 
give  her  food  for  thought,  and  furnish  suggestions 
that  she  can  enlarge  upon.  I  attended  a  geography 
lesson  recently  given  in  one  of  the  finest  schools  of 
New  York  by  a  talented  young  teacher.  It  was  rapid 
and  brilliant  in  its  transitions  as  a  scene  from  vaude- 
ville. Her  enthusiasm  carried  the  class  along  in- 
terested and  eager  to  the  end.  Like  a  trained  actress 
she  was  fully  up  to  her  part  and  the  pupils  had  little 
more  to  do  than  follow  her  line  of  thought.  Every- 
thing was  made  beautifully  clear  and  facts  were 
dovetailed  into  each  other  in  a  way  to  excite  my  ad- 
miration, when  I  recalled  certain  wearisome  hours 
once  spent  in  hunting  up  obscure  towns  on  badly 
printed  maps  and  boundaries  that  were  utterly  useless 
as  knowledge  and  related  to  nothing  elsa  But  —  not 
long  afterward,  having  occasion  to  be  with  several  of 
these  same  young  pupils  and  converse  with  them 


EAELY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  213 

about  some  of  the  things  contained  in  that  brilliant 
lesson  I  found  them  singularly  vacant  of  all  ideas  on 
the  subject.  The  whole  thing  had  passed,  like  a 
dream.  I  think  the  reason  was  that  they  were  merely 
passive  spectators  at  a  show.  They  had  no  part  to 
perform,  no  active  work  to  arouse  their  energies.  It 
is  not  by  iallcs  to  pupils  but  by  conversation  with  them 
that  the  best  results  are  effected.  And  here  is  one 
decided  advantage  of  home  teaching.  It  is  not 
formal ;  it  allows  scope  for  that  give-and-take  of  facts 
and  fancy  which  not  only  interest  at  the  time  but  be- 
come associated  with  some  finer  feelings  which  have 
the  faculty  of  permanent  life. 

In  her  little  geography  lessons  the  mother  should 
always  weave  in  some  story  that  will  serve  to  show 
up  the  background  of  an  essential  fact.  The  salient 
features  should  be  illustrated  so  that  the  child  cannot 
think  of  the  kite  without  glancing  also  at  its  tail. 
Literature  teems  with  books  written  for  children 
about  strange  lands  and  people.  Du  Chaillu's  books 
are  fine,  Kipling's  Jungle  Books  charming  and  "  The 
World  and  Its  People  "  nearly  all  that  can  be  desired. 
But  there  are  in  every  good  public  library  quantities 
of  smaller  volumes,  specializing  places  and  races, 


214       THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

which  the  mother  can  readily  run  through  previous  to 
her  general  talks  about  certain  countries.  History 
makes  a  running  accompaniment  to  geography  les- 
sons, and  cannot  be  left  out.  It  is  always  wise  to 
strike  while  the  interest  of  the  child  is  fresh  in  a 
particular  topic  and  give  him  all  that  he  asks  for. 
Avoid  needless  details,  especially  those  that  lead  away 
from  the  broader  side  of  the  subject.  I  think  that 
the  child  is  perhaps,  to  be  rather  than  the  teacher, 
the  leader  in  selecting  his  material.  At  least,  his 
especial  interest  in  a  particular -thing  may  be  taken 
as  a  guide.  For  instance,  if  there  has  chanced  to  be 
a  conversation  at  the  dinner  table  the  day  previous, 
alluding  to  the  Arabian  mode  of  traveling,  is  there 
any  reason  why  the  next  day's  lesson  may  not  hinge 
upon  that  topic  ?  As  well  Arabia  as  China  or  the 
state  of  Kansas.  Geography  may  be  discursive  and 
jump  all  over  the  known  world  at  an  instant's  notice. 
The  important  thing  is  that  the  little  pupil  learn  the 
facts  that  he  wants  then  and  there.  That  is  the 
knowledge  that  will  stay  by  him  longest.  First 
arouse  his  interest,  or  if  it  has  already  been  accident- 
ally aroused,  then  follow  up  his  awakened  enthusiasm. 
Dear  me, —  an  aroused  enthusiasm  is  a  very  valu- 


EARLY  SOCIAL  IDEAS  215 

able  thing,  and  not  to  be  neglected!  How  many 
weary  college  professors  would  give  anything  for  that 
spark  of  genuine  interest  in  a  subject  under  discussion 
which  it  is  the  happier  fortune  of  the  magnetic  mother 
to  strike  out  without  much  effort. 

It  is  not  easy  to  suggest  anything  like  a  formal 
schedule  for  lessons  in  geography  at  home.  Each 
mother  can  best  lay  out  her  own  plan,  according  to 
her  general  knowledge  and  her  children's  needs.  But 
she  may  put  aside  diffidence  and  hesitation  and  go 
on  boldly  with  this  work,  because  it  affords  her  the 
largest  latitude.  Probably  she  will  accomplish  most 
when  she  thinks  to  do  least. 


"  Education  is  not  an  apprenticeship  to  a  trade  ;  it  is  the 
culture  of  moral  and  intellectual  forces  in  the  individual 
and  in  the  race."  —  ' 


AN  extraordinary  instance  of  what  can  be  done 
by  self-training,  without  the  assistance  of 
schools  has  just  come  under  my  notice.  A 
young  woman  whom  unfortunate  family  circum- 
stances had  caused  to  "  tumble  up  "  rather  than  to 
be  rightly  and  regularly  educated,  passed  her  college 
entrance  examinations  with  remarkable  eclat,  with- 
out any  other  preparation  than  her  own  earnest  ef- 
forts could  achieve.  By  pouring  over  elementary 
grammars  and  text  books  she  gained  enough  knowl- 
edge of  their  contents  in  a  single  month  to  supplement 
the  lack  of  years  of  consecutive  study,  and  after  hav- 
ing been  but  two  years  at  school  during  the  whole 

of  her  life  she  entered  college  and  made  all  her  terms 

216 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       217 

without  any  one  suspecting  the  lack  of  systematic 
training  that  had  preceded  this  final  course. 

This  is  not  an  example  to  be  held  up  for  emula- 
tion. It  merely  shows  what  concentration  and  ear- 
nestness can  do,  and  incidentally,  how  much  time  is 
ordinarily  wasted  in  long  years  of  "  college  prepara- 
tory "  reading.  The  girl  in  question  came  of  a  liter- 
ary family ;  books  were  her  playthings  from  infancy 
and  she  had  absorbed  the  contents  of  a  library  with- 
out any  formal  study.  Her  mental  energy  was  of  a 
high  order  and  she  brought  to  each  subject  she  at- 
tacked the  ripe  faculty  of  judgment  and  a  memory 
not  worn  out  by  long  years  of  drudging  over  unim- 
portant details.  "  It  is  intellectual  power  that  is 
transmitted  from  one  generation  to  another,"  observed 
a  French  critic,  "  and  not  the  knowledge  acquired." 
But  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  inheritance  of 
power  is  even  better  than  a  heritage  of  mere  learning, 
since  the  important  factor  is  undiminished  energy, 
not  out-of-date  facts  about  living. 

"  Browsing  in  a  library  "  did  for  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  what  his  Alma  Mater  could  scarcely  have  ac- 
complished alone.  It  gave  him  an  unquenchable  love 
of  literature,  apart  from  the  mere  technicality  of  book 


218      THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

work.  And  the  two  things  are  very  different.  The 
child  who  grows  up  looking  upon  books  as  things  con- 
cealing lessons,  who  hears  of  Shakespeare  and  Tenny- 
son for  the  first  time  from  the  lips  of  his  teachers  ac- 
companied with  admonishment  about  strict  attention 
to  the  notes  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  and  who  reads 
with  an  eye  to  examinations ;  gets  almost  none  of  the 
beauty  out  of  the  poems  and  less  of  the  moral  worth. 
But  if  he  has  been  familiar  with  these  poems  from 
his  earlier  years,  and  learned  to  love  them  for  their 
own  sake,  neither  "  notes  "  nor  questions  can  dull  his 
interest  in  them.  And  he  will  probably  be  in  need  of 
no  such  spur ;  where  culture  has  entered  into  the  blood 
medicaments  have  no  work  to  do. 

I  have  often  been  surprised  at  the  slight  knowledge 
average  girls  of  the  high  school  age  have  of  general 
literature  and  how  little  their  cursory  reading  helps 
out  their  course  in  the  college  preparatory  studies. 
Between  the  English  classics  and  what  they  usually 
call  interesting  books,  obtained  from  the  libraries  and 
eagerly  devoured  for  amusement,  there  is  an  immense 
gap.  On  the  one  side  all  the  wealth  of  our  rich  lit- 
erature, and  on  the  other  a  sea  of  trash.  No  wonder 
that  the  business  of  reading  the  books  required  for 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       219 

college  is  considered  a  heavy  task,  since  there  is  so 
little  preliminary  training  at  home.  In  a  normal 
education  nearly  all  that  is  now  "  required "  and 
"  crammed "  should  have  been  slowly  and  uncon- 
sciously acquired  in  the  course  of  a  childhood  passed 
in  the  atmosphere  of  books.  Where  the  habit  of  re- 
ferring to  dictionary  and  encyclopedia  to  help  out  in 
difficulties  has  been  the  rule  from  infancy  and  where 
conversation  in  the  home  has  been  intelligent,  the 
child  does  not  have  to  be  taught  by  his  school  teacher 
liow  to  learn,  and  scarcely  what  to  learn.  When  his 
interest  in  the  subject  on  hand  has  once  been  excited 
he  will  work  without  needing  to  be  driven  along  the 
path  under  the  lash  of  a  threatened  "  examination." 
He  will  work  because  he  wants  to  know.  And  the 
only  knowledge  that  stays  by  us  is  that  which  has 
been  gained  to  satisfy  our  curiosity. 

There  are  children  who  have  an  honest  indifference 
to  books,  but  want  to  know  what  is  useful  and  nec- 
essary for  their  occupations.  They  will  read  when 
they  want  to  find  out  facts  bearing  upon  pursuits  that 
interest  them,  such  as  machinery,  electricity  or  some 
craft,  but  their  enjoyment  is  in  the  fact  mastered,  not 
in  the  way  it  is  presented.  Books  are  their  servants, 


220      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

not  their  friends.  That  they  thus  miss  the  most  in- 
tense pleasure  in  life  is  not  a  distress  to  such  practical 
temperaments:  frank,  shrewd,  bustling  minds  are 
these,  to  whom  the  universe  is  a  mechanism  and 
themselves  mechanics.  They  are  usually  cheerful, 
insensible  and  self-satisfied,  but  not  sympathetic  nor 
winsome.  Dearer  by  far  is  the  creature  who  with  all 
the  faults,  perhaps,  of  frequent  impetuosity  and  in- 
consistency yet  unites  to  capacity  for  action  an  en- 
thusiasm for  the  ideal.  Such  an  one  will  be  esti- 
mable as  a  man,  adorable  as  a  woman  and  as  a  child 
at  once  perplexing  and  tantalizing,  satisfactory  and 
attractive. 

The  natural  child  has  a  vein  of  romance  in  him 
as  the  wild  flower  has  a  faint  woodsy  scent,  unlike 
the  perfume  which  is  cultivated  in  garden  blooms. 
His  fancy  dwells  in  a  world  where  beauty  is  a  right 
and  love  the  law ;  he  revels  in  the  impossible,  believes 
devoutly  in  the  improbable  and  fixes  his  ambitions 
high  above  the  power  of  mortal  attainment.  But  if 
he  did  not,  if  he  simply  desired  what  is  easy  and 
common,  he  would  win  less  from  life  than  even  the 
average  man  and  woman  do.  It  is  by  aiming  high 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       221 

that  we  get  a  little  nearer  a  lofty  mark  than  if  we 
followed  the  level  of  our  understanding. 

Between  the  simplest  child  and  the  great  genius  is 
a  natural  sympathy  and  attraction.  "  And  still  to 
childhood's  sweet  refrain  the  heart  of  genius  turns," 
sang  Longfellow.  The  mind  that  is  passionately  sin- 
cere strikes  fire  from  the  child  nature.  Nothing  is 
so  repellant  to  it  as  an  affectation.  Few  grown  peo- 
ple know  what  literature  they  like  until  they  have 
been  told  by  somebody  they  respect  what  they  ought 
to  like.  Their  admiration  or  disapproval  results  from 
a  deliberate  deference  to  rules  and  standards,  or,  in 
the  case  of  the  uneducated,  from  that  emotional  stam- 
pede which  draws  an  entire  mass  onward  after  a 
leader. 

But  children  receive  from  their  first  acquaintance 
with  a  book  the  effect  the  author  intended,  free  from 
the  prejudice  of  contemporary  opinion  of  its  worth. 
The  ideas  they  may  form  have  the  sincerity  of  a  con- 
viction reached  by  independent  reasoning;  more  re- 
liable than  the  impressions  of  adults  who  rarely  ap- 
proach a  book  with  unbiased  minds.  And  not  only 
will  an  unsophisticated  child  pass  judgment  upon  an 


222, 

author  according  to  his  own  impressions  about  him, 
but  he  will  state  these  in  a  straightforward  manner. 
He  makes  no  apologies  or  explanations  on  finding  a 
famous  writer  dull  or  a  popular  idol  unnatural.  It  is 
instructive  to  hear  the  candid  criticisms  of  a  young, 
unspoiled  mind,  but  an  understanding  which  is  wholly 
natural  in  its  processes  is  not  by  any  means  character- 
istic of  all  children.  Although  there  is  a  period  in 
the  life  of  every  child  when  he  is  intellectually 
honest  it  is  often  brief ;  cut  short  by  his  introduction 
to  school.  Here  the  sharp  edge  of  originality  quickly 
grinds  away  against  the  machine  constructed  to  turn 
individualities  into  averages. 

So  quick  and  sure  is  the  change  under  school  dis- 
cipline from  impulsive  frankness  to  calculated  effects, 
that  I  believe  the  data  recently  contributed  by  school 
libraries  concerning  children's  literary  tastes  can 
scarcely  be  considered  good  evidence  of  their  natural 
inclinations.  It  is  the  product  of  a  cultivated  soil, 
not  a  spontaneous  growth.  And  the  determination 
to  accept  these  contributions  as  proofs  of  a  child's 
mental  bias  reveals  the  prejudice  in  favor  of  engraft- 
ing adult  opinions  upon  the  tender  shoots  of  young 
instinct  which  is  constantly  leading  us  away  from  a 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       223 

real  understanding  of  child  nature.  We  cannot  as- 
certain what  a  child  thinks  by  starting  out  in  our 
inquiry  with  a  fixed  idea  of  what  he  ought  to  think. 
Little  is  gained  indeed,  by  attention  to  his  purely 
mental  processes  even  when  they  are  honestly  studied. 
We  gain  more  by  considering  his  emotional  expres- 
sions. 

I  believe  that  every  normal  child  has  an  instinctive 
appreciation  of  the  good  and  the  beautiful  at  least 
equal  to  the  guiding  light  of  our  own  adult  experience. 
There  is  in  fact,  a  curious  likeness  between  the  pure 
impulse  of  a  simple  understanding  and  the  aspiration 
of  a  mind  broadly  cultured.  A  little  child's  estimate 
of  literature  which  is  at  all  within  the  realm  of  his 
comprehension  is  usually  more  than  respectable;  it 
is  often  acute,  searching,  just.  What  he  likes  is  apt 
to  have  some  claim  to  excellence,  even  if  of  a  simple 
kind.  And  his  dislike  for  complications  closely  re- 
sembles the  preferences  of  truly  esthetic  minds  for 
something  that  touches  the  heart. 

Whoever  will  take  the  trouble  to  win  the  confidence 
of  a  child  who  is  just  beginning  to  get  an  acquaint- 
ance with  literature,  chiefly  as  yet,  through  having 
stories  read  to  him,  will  probably  find  some  positive 


224      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

inclinations  already  aroused.  Out  of  a  dozen  books 
one  will  be  eagerly  praised  and  others  listened  to  with 
indifference.  And  although  this  indication  of  prefer- 
ence or  aversion  may  seem  like  a  caprice,  study  of  the 
child's  tastes  in  other  matters  will  show  that  he  has 
reasons  for  his  criticisms.  Cold,  somber  or  subtle 
things  do  not  attract  him.  It  is  his  part,  as  a  reader 
or  listener,  to  respond,  not  to  dig  deep  for  hidden 
meanings,  and  art  may  ask  much  from  his  feelings  but 
no  new  effort  from  his  mind.  The  dividing  line  be- 
twixt pain  and  pleasure  is  much  sharper  in  youth 
than  in  maturity,  and  clearer,  truer.  Work  is  called 
work  and  play  is  known  as  play.  A  book  that  de- 
mands hard  thinking  cannot  delude  infantile  fancy 
by  any  over-lapping  pleasantry  above  dulness.  The 
demand  a  child  makes  of  a  story  is  that  it  shall  have 
vitality,  warmth  that  can  kindle  interest.  Humor, 
pathos  or  a  lively  bit  of  talk  stir  him  more  than  older 
readers  because  his  susceptibility  has  not  been  dulled 
by  abuse. 

There  are  children,  I  am  told,  who  take  a  kind  of 
pleasure  in  tickling  their  ears  with  the  sound  of 
rhythmical  phrases ;  a  baby  of  two  years  who  listened 
with  delight  to  Tennyson's  "  Sweet  and  Low,"  and 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE        225 

other  precocious  mites  who  sigh  over  "  Thanatopsis," 
out  these  are  rare  infants.  Most  intelligent  young  peo- 
ple under  a  dozen  years,  when  childish  taste  begins  to 
change,  have  a  hunger  for  what  is  vivid  and  present; 
choosing,  if  one  may  so  phrase  it,  the  legs  of  plain 
prose,  not  the  wings  of  verse ;  liking  rhyme  very  well 
but  insisting  on  the  story. 

Folk  lore  makes  no  mistake  and  is  permanently 
satisfying.  "  Mother  Goose  "  holds  her  place  in  our 
nursery  because  in  such  thrilling  narratives  as  "  Lit- 
tle Jack  Homer  "  and  "  Mary  and  the  Lamb  "  there 
is  an  immediate  answer  to  the  child's  wish  for  reality. 
A  living  person  with  an  identifying  name  is  at  once 
projected  on  his  attention.  He  is  given  a  playmate. 
Then  there  is  something  given  him  to  do  that  is  both 
curious  and  interesting;  something  one  would  not 
mind  doing  one's  self  if  the  chance  offered.  The 
laiigh  comes  with  the  discomfiture  of  somebody  or 
something  that  is  not  especially  cared  for.  Favor- 
ites must  be  protected  and  extricated  from  their  dif- 
ficulties before  the  tale  ends,  if  there  is  to  be  peace. 

There  is  a  natural  difference  between  the  tastes  of 
boys  and  girls.  Boys  want  the  excitement  strong 
and  sustained;  girls  prefer  something  more  subtle. 


They  would  have  a  heroine  continually  doing  agree- 
able little  things,  like  Miss  Alcott's  "  Jo  "  who  is,  I 
believe,  the  most  popular  character  in  any  book  writ- 
ten for  children.  She  is  so  altogether  human ;  spicy 
yet  high-minded,  and  above  all,  impulsive,  like  them- 
selves. If  we  would  get  at  the  secret  of  what  gives 
the  charm  to  character  I  think  it  is  this :  the  showing 
of  lively  impulse.  A  real  child  is  always  swayed  by 
caprices,  stopping  scarcely  one  time  out  of  a  hundred 
to  calculate  and  study  consequences,  and  if  he  avoids 
all  dangers  it  is  after  personal  experiences  has  taught 
him  what  they  mean.  When  an  author  presents  a 
cool,  far-sighted  young  creature  who  pauses  before 
every  attractive  caper  to  decide  whether  he  will  get 
his  feet  wet  or  lose  his  chance  of  getting  to  heaven, 
one  cannot  blame  a  sensible  reader  for  throwing  down 
the  book. 

There  are  bits  in  some  novels  that  children  recog- 
nize as  faithful  paintings  and  like  better  than  any  tale 
written  down  to  their  understanding.  Give  them  the 
school  day  experiences  of  Jane  Eyre,  the  chapter  from 
"  The  Caxtons  "  about  Pisistratus  and  his  flower  pot, 
or  that  picturesque  and  too  little  known  genre  bit 
from  Mrs.  Stowe's  "  Poganuc  People  "  where  Dolly 


CHILDREN'S  LITEEARY  LIFE       227 

goes  to  the  illumination,  if  you  would  learn  whether 
children  appreciate  excellence  of  description.  Dick- 
ens' stories  about  "  Poor  Jo,"  Harry  Walmers,  Jr., 
and  Little  Em'ly,  pleasantly  narrated  in  the  volume 
brought  out  by  Dickens'  daughter  should  be  in  the 
child's  library.  Every  well  read  woman  can  how- 
ever, make  appropriate  selections  from  the  best  au- 
thors to  suit  the  taste  of  her  little  hearers.  It  is  one 
of  a  mother's  privileges  to  introduce  her  children  in 
this  manner  to  what  is  best  in  literature  and  not  send 
them  forth  utterly  undeveloped,  to  have  their  opinions 
formed  by  any  teacher  into  whose  charge  they  may 
happen  to  fall.  "  Education  is  rescuing  children 
from  the  play  of  chance." 

Old  books,  especially  those  meant  for  adults,  con- 
tain treasures  not  to  be  found  on  modern  juvenile  book 
shelves.  Indeed,  the  majority  of  books  written  for 
children  are  an  affront  to  their  taste.  They  are 
mostly  fantastic,  exaggerated  and  lacking  in  a  true 
perception  of  child  nature.  They  deal  with  life  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  adult  trying  to  seem  young, 
and  have  a  sort  of  mocking  humor  that  teases  and  re- 
volts. An  unsophisticated  child  dislikes  magicians 
and  goblins  who  talk  satirically,  animals  that 


228       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

philosophize,  and  young  persons  who  are  made  to 
pose  for  the  purpose  of  acting  out  the  author's  idea. 
To  succeed  with  them  a  writer  must  be  sincere  and 
have  no  ulterior  object  in  view.  And  this  is  why 
the  child  characters  wrought  by  the  masters  strike  the 
chord  of  youthful  sympathy.  They  are  usually  writ- 
ten in  the  author's  best  and  most  earnest  vein. 
When  an  author  presents  his  hero  or  heroine  as  an 
infant  he  knows  that  he  works  to  win  or  lose  all.  If 
he  does  not  succeed  in  making  him  live  all  is  over. 
We  may  waste  one  perusal  on  his  book  but  we  will 
not  return  to  it.  If  readers  universally  abided  by 
their  better  impulses  there  would  be  a  great  weeding 
out  in  our  literary  fields. 

Mrs.  Wiggins,  who  has  done  so  much  to  protect 
children  from  misinterpretation,  says : — "  One  of 
the  vices  of  to-day  is  that  we  are  publishing  too  many 
books  for  young  people.  The  child's  attention  is  be- 
ing diverted  from  the  best  channels  by  the  newspaper 
interest  which  the  schools  require.  We  are  envelop- 
ing rather  than  developing  the  young  mind.  Here 
is  my  educational  creed :  Provide  the  best  conditions 
for  mental  growth  and  then  let  the  child  do  the 
growing." 


This  eminent  author  was  one  of  the  children  who 
"  browsed  in  a  library  " ;  reading  in  childhood  such 
books  as  "  Undine,"  "  The  Arabian  Nights,"  "  Scot- 
tish Chiefs,"  "Ivanhoe"  and  Thackeray's  "Book 
of  Snobs."  "  Gulliver  was  very  real  to  me,"  she 
averred,  "  and  I  don't  think  I  was  the  worse  for  not 
reading  Shakespeare  in  expurgated  editions.  We 
expurgated  as  we  read,  child  fashion,  taking  into 
our  sleek  little  heads  all  that  we  could  comprehend 
or  apprehend  and  passing  over  what  might  have  been 
hurtful  at  a  later  period.  I  suppose  we  failed  to 
get  a  very  close  conception  of  Shakespeare's  colossal 
genius  but  we  did  get  a  tremendous  and  lasting  im- 
pression of  force  and  power,  life  and  truth." 

It  is  a  thousand  times  more  important,  this  —  than 
pedantical  knowledge  of  every  word  the  seventeenth 
century  authors  made  classical.  The  telling  truth 
Mrs.  Wiggins  lightly  refers  to,  that  when  very  young 
children  get  beauty  and  truth  from  literature,  and 
slip  over  the  allusions  to  evil  that  later  on  they  will 
be  curious  about  —  is  too  little  understood.  I  read 
Don  Juan  when  I  was  but  ten,  and  dreamed  over  the 
unparalleled  grandeur  of  Byron's  melancholy  music. 
I  swallowed  whole  such  volumes  as  Chateaubriand's 


230       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Travels,  passed  a  warm  summer  without  fatigue 
by  the  help  of  a  wonderful  time-yellowed  book  en- 
titled "  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America,"  containing 
"  The  Culprit  Fay "  and  many  odes  to  Napoleon, 
and  devoured  without  hindrance  or  check,  between 
seven  and  seventeen  many  works  of  our  greatest 
English  writers,  holding  doctrines  and  anecdotes  that 
were  more  than  doubtful  material  for  the  reveries 
of  maidens,  but  of  which  I  kept  only  the  beauty  and 
remained  entirely  innocent  of  the  vice. 

The  child  does  cull  sensibly  if  he  is  allowed  a 
free  hand.  He  chooses  the  volume  which  strikes  a 
true  note;  that  appeals  both  to  his  imagination  and 
to  his  sense  of  reality  at  the  same  time.  He  likes 
realism  in  romance.  This  may  be  why  Grimm's 
Tales  are  usually  preferred  to  later  embroideries 
upon  the  plain  old  reel  of  simple  folk  lore.  The  de- 
sire to  continue  adventures  of  a  favorite  hero  leads 
the  child  to  love  long  stories,  related  in  sections,  and 
continued  for  many  sequent  days.  If  he  could  be 
made  sufficiently  attractive  there  is  a  possibility  that 
a  single  hero  would  last  a  child  during  the  term  of 
his  nursery  existence.  Such  a  character  is  the 
worthy  Tuflongo,  in  Holme  Lee's  Fairy  Tales.  In  an 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       231 

obscure  corner  among  some  old  papers  I  found  the 
other  day  that  ancient  volume,  worth  from  its  as- 
sociations, more  than  its  weight  in  gold  to  me.  On 
the  day  that  my  eyes  opened  to  the  light  of  this  world 
my  mother,  whose  imaginative  nature  bordered  upon 
superstition,  recalled  a  certain  legend  to  the  effect 
that  if  a  book,  a  ring  and  a  piece  of  money  were 
placed  within  the  reach  of  the  new-born  infant  its 
choice  would  show  its  future  destiny.  If  the  money 
was  touched  it  would  become  rich;  if  the  ring  a 
happy  marriage  was  presaged,  while  the  selection  of 
the  book  foretold  a  literary  career.  My  father,  in 
the  gratification  of  this  whim  added  romance  to  it  by 
purchasing  a  new  book  for  the  occasion.  It  was 
Holme  Lee's  Fairy  Tales,  a  thick  book  in  a  bright 
red  and  gold  binding,  fatally  attractive;  and  the 
blind,  misguided  baby  put  its  wavering  little  hand  on 
the  volume,  thereby  sealing  its  fate,  as  well  as  estab- 
lishing an  inalienable  right  to  its  first  lawful  piece 
of  property. 

The  plaything  of  my  first  year,  the  victim  of  my 
early  penchant  for  pencil  marking  and  the  treasure 
of  my  whole  childhood,  this  old  book  has  served  me 
many  a  good  turn,  and  perhaps  —  who  knows  ? —  an 


ill  turn  or  so  in  its  time.  I  learned  to  read  in  it,  and 
learned  too,  from  it,  to  live  for  half  the  time  in  a 
beautiful  ideal  world  where  virtue  and  happiness 
went  hand  in  hand  and  where  "  love  was  law." 

There  are  worse  things  than  a  vein  of  romance. 
It  naturally  thins  to  a  mere  thread  as  we  grow  old, 
but  in  early  life  it  should  be  a  full,  abounding  cur- 
rent, influencing  to  some  extent  all  the  thoughts  and 
acts  of  youth.  An  old  French  proverb  says,  "A  door 
must  be  either  open  or  shut."  And  a  child  must  be 
one  of  two  things;  credulous,  confiding,  hopeful,  or 
else  sordid  and  distrustful.  Shall  we  wish  our  little 
ones  prematurely  worldly  wise? 

It  is  a  fair  and  happy  period  where  the  boy  and 
girl  meet  each  other's  eyes  frankly  and  squabble  and 
make  up  in  true  brotherly  and  sisterly  fashion.  Out 
on  some  haunt  in  the  woods  wanders  one  of  those 
girls  whom  Mrs.  Stowe  says  are  happy  with  "  three 
apples  and  a  book,"  and  with  her  a  frank,  saucy  boy, 
intent  on  fishing  but  with  a  weather  eye  to  teasing. 
He  too,  has  a  book  in  his  pocket ;  a  Life  of  Somebody, 
and  he  and  she  exchange  confidences,  and  thrill 
mutually  over  the  heroic  deeds  of  Cceur  de  Lion  and 
Lloyd  Garrison.  Their  mingled  enthusiasms  kindle 


CHILDREN'S  LITERARY  LIFE       233 

feelings  that  even  after  dying  down  a  little,  leaves 
something  which  makes  future  trust  in  human  good- 
ness easier  and  heroism  possible.  Who  shall  say 
from  what  secret  source  of  memory  is  drawn  that 
power  to  endure  and  suffer  for  faith  and  freedom 
that  makes  our  boy  and  girl  go  gayly  forth  to  hard 
duties  when  country  and  humanity  call?  Only 
lately  a  thrill  went  through  many  of  us  when  a  well- 
known  woman  whose  beauty  and  social  power  had 
made  themselves  t'elt  on  two  continents  quietly  re- 
nounced every  privilege  of  her  position  to  become 
a  nurse  to  lepers.  But  yesterday  we  unfurled  our 
flags  and  scattered  flowers  over  the  biers  of  a  score 
of  young  soldiers  who  were  the  pioneers  in  a  dan- 
gerous campaign  against  a  threatening  foreign  foe. 
Does  this  spirit  spring  up  in  a  night,  like  a  mush- 
room ?  Impossible.  It  takes  years  of  up-lifting  fan- 
cies and  thoughts  to  make  a  hero.  But  the  most 
potent  factor  in  a  good  life  —  after  a  good  mother  — 
is  good  literature.  Surround  the  child  from  infancy 
with  books  that  contain  the  great  lessons  of  life ;  that 
thrill  with  earnestness  and  enthusiasm;  that  are 
vigorous  and  deep  and  call  for  response  from  his 
mind.  To  the  child  who  opens  his  mind  to  the  deep 


234      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

truths  of  poetry,  which  is  the  forerunner  of  science, 
life  looks  simple  and  easy,  and  he  learns  to  attach 
himself  to  duty  before  duty  assumes  that  complicated 
and  distasteful  aspect  it  often  presents  later  on.  It 
is  the  child  who  is  averse  to  books,  who  is  inimical 
to  study,  that  is  the  intractable  child,  who  rebels 
against  law  and  order  because  his  nature  is  inhar- 
monious with  its  own  laws.  Books  in  themselves  — 
mere  print  and  paper  —  are  only  trash  except  as  they 
are  symbols  of  the  life  of  thought  and  imagination. 
But  in  our  day  they  are  symbols  almost  inseparable 
from  it.  And  so  the  child  who  naturally  forms  an 
early  friendship  for  books  shows  that  the  trend  of  his 
mind  is  upward,  along  the  higher  paths  of  life. 

A  child's  literary  life  is  a  secret  no  adult  can 
ever  wholly  penetrate.  If  he  seldom  talks  of  what 
he  reads  he  thinks  the  more.  The  memories  garnered 
from  his  reading  enter  into  his  dreams,  and  pursue 
him  when  awake.  His  development  is  helped  on  per- 
haps more  by  his  voluntary  reading  than  by  any  formal 
studies.  But  the  mother  may  tactfully  guide  his  taste 
often  without  his  knowledge,  by  speaking  in  praise  of 
fine  books.  There  should  be  within  easy  reach,  such 
attractive  volumes  as  Arabella  Buckley's  "  Fairyland 


of  Science,"  for  children  over  seven;  and  Haw- 
thorne's Wonder  Book  must  be  in  every  home.  But 
even  without  any  book  especially  adapted  to  his  age 
a  child  will  find  nourishment  for  his  taste  in  bits 
culled  from  great  authors.  The  time  to  cultivate 
literary  taste  in  children  is  before  they  can  read. 
Stories  told  by  the  mother  or  father,  when  the  little 
ones  are  cuddled  about  their  knees  in  the  twilight  are 
the  treats  which  young  things  look  forward  to  with 
the  greatest  pleasure.  One  of  the  prettiest  sights  in 
the  world  is  a  flock  of  bright,  eager  children  gathered 
around  some  gentle,  sympathetic  woman  who  has  for- 
gotten all  her  cares  and  important  duties  to  enter 
into  their  enjoyment.  It  is  surprising  that  mothers 
ever  neglect  this  function  of  story-telling,  which  is 
one  of  the  best  means  of  impressing  important  les- 
sons. A  "  ballad-making "  parent  holds  his  child 
a  willing  captive  and  although  he  may  sometimes 
feel,  as  Emerson  says,  that  he  "is  the  slave  of  his 
power,"  and  wish  he  had  less  gift  of  entertaining, 
he  can  teach  his  audience  moderation  in  its  demands. 
A  child  will  concede  almost  anything  for  the  sake 
of  that  charming  hour  "  in  the  gloaming  "  when  he 
is  taken  a  journey  into  fancy's  kingdom  and  made 


to  forget  all  his  little  troubles  and  disappointments. 
Story-telling  is  doubtless,  a  natural  gift,  but  it  can 
be  cultivated,  and  the  result  is  well  worth  effort. 
There  are  numbers  of  books  at  hand  nowadays,  fur- 
nishing the  outline  of  classical  tales,  which  the 
mother  can  glance  over  and  master  easily.  Her  per- 
sonality is  an  essential  quantity  in  the  fascination 
of  the  twilight  hour  tales,  though,  and  the  more  she 
can  infuse  herself  into  her  stories  the  better  they  will 
be  liked.  Even  after  they  read  a  good  deal  for 
themselves  children  prefer  to  hear  tales  related  by 
a  living  voice.  They  take  to  books  for  company 
when  the  more  vivid  presence  of  loved  friends  is 
lacking.  But  once  interested  in  a  favorite  volume 
society  solicits  them  in  vain.  The  true  book-lover 
becomes  immersed  —  buried,  and  has  to  be  dug  out 
with  hoes !  But  one  should  be  cautious  of  interrupt- 
ing a  vision  of  the  beautiful  by  the  intrusion  of 
rougher  actualities;  when  the  reader  is  young. 
Subtle  influences  of  potent  worth  may  be  at  work 
within  them.  Most  of  us  who  have  lived  much  with 
books  are  influenced  more  than  we  should  probably 
like  to  acknowledge  by  reminiscences  of  our  childish 
literary  life. 


CHAPTER  XV 
FOREIGN  LANGUAGES 

"  Conversation  has  always  been  considered  by  the  great 
educators  the  best  means  of  instructing  children;  especially 
in  languages.  Socrates,  Rousseau,  Pestalozzi,  Fellenburg 
and  many  others  have  been  earnest  advocates  of  it.  It  is 
above  all,  in  the  family  that  this  method  is  useful  as  a 
means  of  preparing  children  for  classical  studies,  and  for 
giving  them  fluency  in  living  tongues." —  MARCEL. 

IT  is  of  inestimable  advantage  to  any  one  to  grow 
up  knowing  two  languages  so  well  that  he  can 
at  will  pass  from  one  to  the  other,  without  the 
necessity  of  conscious  translation  from  his  mother 
tongue  into  that  which  is  the  less  native.  It  is  almost 
like  possessing  a  spiritual  passport  that  might  enable 
the  intelligence  to  take  a  vacation  whenever  it  de- 
sired an  extension  of  its  experiences.  Apart  from 
its  practical  value  to  those  who  are  to  pursue  com- 
mercial careers,  or  to  the  traveler,  the  complete  pos- 
session of  one  or  more  foreign  languages  is  an  ex- 

237 


238       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

tension  of  mental  power  that  no  one  can  afford  to 
neglect.  A  mere  "  smattering "  of  a  language  is 
entirely  useless  as  an  aid  to  intellectual  develop- 
ment, and  the  complete  acquaintance  with  one  im- 
plies such  facility  that  one  may  express  all  his 
thoughts  in  it  with  as  much  readiness  as  he  can  in 
his  mother  tongue. 

How  many  of  our  young  people  grow  up  with  this 
mastery  of  the  French,  German  or  Spanish  over 
which  from  five  to  ten  years  are  usually  spent  during 
their  school  and  college  years  ?  They  may,  after 
great  effort  and  much  drudgery  get  a  reading  knowl- 
edge of  these  foreign  languages ;  more  rarely,  a  writ- 
ing, knowledge.  But  it  is  seldom  indeed,  that  the 
knowledge  includes  the  ability  to  converse  fluently 
or  to  think  in  it.  Mastery  of  a  foreign  language  can- 
not be  got  from  text-books.  One  must  live  in  the  at- 
mosphere, work,  play  and  breathe  in  it  just  as  he  has 
done  with  his  mother  tongue,  before  it  enters  into 
his  composition  .and  becomes  an  integral  part  of  his 
existence. 

The  idea  of  using  text-books  to  impart  a  knowl- 
edge of  languages  is  a  pedantical  method  which 
was  first  adopted  by  a  set  of  monks;  the  Jansenists 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  239 

of  Port  Royal ;  and  lias  come  down  to  us.  But  it  has 
been  meeting  with  disfavor  for  a  long  time,  and 
will,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  sometime  be  superseded  by 
the  original  method  of  the  living  voice  of  the  teacher. 
In  the  more  cultured  families  among  us  there  is 
often  a  singular  neglect  of  languages  as  a  part  of 
education.  They  are  regarded  as  the  special  office 
of  the  school,  where  there  is  a  great  show  made  of 
teaching  them.  How  thoroughly  this  is  done  may  be 
inferred  from  such  circumstances  as  this :  In  Paris 
I  met  at  a  certain  pension,  or  boarding  house,  about 
thirty  young  women  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  but 
especially  from  America,  who  after  graduating  from 
our  large  colleges,  were  beginning  at  the  beginning 
as  pupils  at  the  "  Ecole  Internationale "  to  learn 
French.  Not  one  could  speak  the  tongue  studied 
for  from  five  to  seven  years,  and  scarcely  one  could 
read  the  simplest  book  without  the  help  of  a  diction- 
ary. At  St.  Germaine  I  encountered  a  melancholy 
Harvard  student  going  through  the  same  routine  by 
himself,  to  supplement  the  deficiencies  of  his  early 
training !  Everywhere  throughout  Europe  one  meets 
Americans  struggling  with  tongues  which  they  are 
supposed  to  have  studied  long  and  seriously,  but  with 


240      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

which  they  have  no  intimate  acquaintance.  After 
years  of  delving  through  grammatical  rules  the 
traveler  is  forced  to  turn  to  an  interpreter  to  explain 
the  simplest  facts  relating  to  everyday  needs.  Nor 
is  this  lamentable  deficiency  singular  to  English 
speaking  people.  In  France  English  is  very  poorly 
taught  in  the  schools  and  only  those  children  who 
have  English  governesses  learn  anything  at  all  of 
our  tongue.  And  in  English  boarding  schools  a  two 
years'  term  is  considered  insufficient  to  get  even  the 
slightest  reading  and  writing  knowledge  of  the  Eng- 
lish tongue  studied  at  home  since  infancy!  Be- 
cause it  is  taught  from  books.  A  Erench  girl  of  my 
acquaintance  who  has  had  excellent  advantages,  fin- 
ished by  two  years  at  a  celebrated  English  school  and 
cannot  write  a  note  of  one  page  in  English  without 
making  errors  a  six-year-old  child  laughs  at.  But 
during  our  own  residence  at  Paris  I  had  the  good 
fortune,  in  an  exchange  of  conversation  with  a  French 
girl,  to  give  her  a  start  in  English  that  enabled  her 
to  go  on  easily  after  we  left  there,  although  she  had 
perhaps  less  than  thirty  lessons.  I  took  with  her  the 
real  kindergarten  method,  talking  about  objects 
around  us,  and  passing  gradually  to  other  matters; 


FOKEIGN  LANGUAGES  241 

not  undertaking  to  confuse  her  understanding  by 
immediate  reference  to  "  the  knife  of  the  gardener's 
son."  Yet  some  rules  of  grammar  did  come  in 
incidentally,  and  were  remembered  as  being  explana- 
tions of  certain  "  drolleries  "  of  the  singular  English 
language. 

The  kindergarten  method  is  the  right  one;  even 
when  the  pupils  have  reached  an  advanced  age.  In 
learning  a  language  we  must  all  go  back  to  child- 
hood. Is  it  not  then,  a  singular  absurdity  to  teach 
children  by  methods  that  are  too  advanced  for  the 
adult  who  is  a  beginner  ?  Language  is  an  outcome 
of  man's  emotional  nature  and  is  not  to  be  acquired 
by  an  effort  of  the  intellect  working  by  itself.  Gram- 
mar, the  colorless  reflection  of  speech,  may  be  coolly 
studied,  but  to  know  grammar  is  not  to  know  how  to 
talk  but  how  not  to  talk.  It  no  more  imparts  the 
power  of  expression  than  knowledge  of  the  chemical 
properties  of  colors  makes  an  artist.  After  some 
facility  of  expression  has  been  gained  it  is  desirable 
to  begin  the  study  of  grammar,  if  French  or  German 
are  being  studied,  because  these  languages  depend 
upon  grammar  for  correctness  of  construction  much 
more  than  our  own  tongue  does.  But  the  grammars 


242       THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

should  be  of  the  most  primary  character  and  written 
in  the  language  that  is  being  studied.  It  is  a  mon- 
strous error  to  study  any  foreign  grammar  written 
in  the  mother  tongue. 

No  one  should  he  appalled  by  this  statement  and 
anticipate  insuperable  difficulties  in  the  way  of  home 
instruction  of  children  in  foreign  languages.  If 
French  is  to  be  taught,  buy  at  any  French  book  store, 
or  send  to  Paris  and  get  it,  the  "  Premiere  Annee 
de  Grammaire"  published  by  Librarie  Armand 
Colin,  and  use  it  as  an  aid  to  the  conversations  about 
grammar.  Conversation,  and  above  all,  conversation, 
is  the  essential  method  of  instruction.  Consider  the 
method  of  Nature  with  her  children.  In  the  first 
place,  we  perceive,  then  we  want,  and  express  our 
wish ;  then,  we  claim  what  we  want.  First  observa- 
tion, then  emotion,  lastly,  expansion  of  our  ideas. 
In  the  most  primitive  stage  the  language  is  wholly 
that  of  emotion,  and  is  conducted  by  gestures. 
Therefore,  in  teaching  children,  make  use  of  gestures 
to  help  out.  Little  songs,  accompanied  by  gestures, 
little  games  that  are  actively  spoken,  fix  words  in  the 
minds  of  the  players.  Out  of  feeling  springs  ex- 
pression as  flowers  grow  from  the  vital  substance  in 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  243 

the  plant.  The  more  intense  bur  feeling  the  more 
vivid  and  picturesque  our  expression.  In  building 
up  a  method  for  the  learning  of  a  foreign  language 
\ve  must  analyze  the  way  we  learned  our  mother 
tongue  and  proceed  along  similar  lines.  That  was 
the  vehicle  of  our  earliest  wants  and  thoughts;  simi- 
larly, the  newer  tongue  must  first  endeavor  to  depict 
our  simpler  wishes  and  ideas,  gradually  progressing 
to  those  that  are  more  complicated. 

One  of  the  most  absurd  things  ever  attempted  was 
setting  children  to  learn  languages  from  books. 
Even  the  conning  of  words  was  stupid  enough,  but 
when  it  came  to  memorizing  rules  of  syntax,  the  di- 
vergence from  common  sense  was  at  its  highest  point 
of  departure.  Yet  what  countless  thousands  are  still 
pursuing  this  road  to  nowhere!  And  how  disre- 
garded are  the  warnings  of  those  who  like  Monsieur 
Gouin,  relate  their  sorry  experiences  of  the  classical 
methods  of  learning  a  language  and  advise  the  aban- 
donment of  books  and  the  use  of  a  system  that  is  in 
accord  with  Nature.  Against  a  deeply  rooted  preju- 
dice our  mighty  philosopher,  Herbert  Spencer,  made 
but  little  headway,  when  he  showed  the  world  its 
error,  half  a  century  ago.  But  the  labors  of  Jacotot, 


244      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

Gouin  and  Marcel  have  prepared  the  way  for  the 
adoption  of  a  rational  method;  and  although  it  is 
little  known  or  practised  now,  there  is  hope  that  in 
time  it  will  entirely  drive  out  the  classical  or  monk- 
ish method. 

Monsieur  Marcel,  whose  clear  and  concise  little 
manual  on  "  The  Study  of  Languages  "  well  trans- 
lated lately,  should  be  read  by  every  mother,  divides 
his  method  into  two  parts;  the  practical,  which  asso- 
ciates ideas  and  their  signs  directly,  as  when  a  child 
plays  in  German  and  French  with  native  nurses  and 
so  acquires  both  languages  at  the  same  time  that  he 
learns  to  speak  his  mother  tongue  from  his  parents; 
and  the  comparative,  where  a  foreign  language  is 
learned  by  translating  the  signs  of  our  native  tongue 
into  the  strange  one.  The  first  plan  he  thinks  the 
only  proper  one  for  young  persons  under  twelve; 
while  the  second,  calling  for  judgment  and  reflec- 
tion, is  an  aid  to  the  mental  development  of  riper 
years.  The  practical  method  is  however,  in  my 
opinion,  not  only  superior  to  translation,  but  is  the 
only  way  that  a  foreign  language  can  be  learned  so 
as  to  afford  a  ready  means  of  communication  with 


FOKEIGN  LANGUAGES  245 

others,  or  the  power  of  expressing  one's  own  thoughts 
through  written  words. 

When  an  adult  and  a  child  visit  a  foreign  country 
the  little  one  learns  to  speak  the  new  language  far 
more  rapidly  than  his  older  fellow  student  because 
he  gets  his  knowledge  at  first  hand;  not  by  saying 
to  himself  for  instance,  that  a  certain  word  in  Ger- 
man stands  for  a  certain  word  in  English,  but  that 
das  Kind  is  himself,  der  Hut  the  thing  upon  his  head, 
and  so  on.  His  mother  meanwhile,  labors  by  the 
comparative  method  to  think  from  one  set  of  symbols 
into  another  set,  instead  of  immediately  associating 
objects  and  their  symbols. 

The  child's  way  is  the  living  way,  the  other  a 
colorless  imitation.  Translating  has  so  long  been  the 
regular  routine,  that  many  persons  are  shocked  by 
the  suggestion  of  discarding  it  in  favor  of  the  ap- 
parently puerile  method  of  Nature.  How  pernicious 
the  translation  method  ordinarily  is  has  been  proved 
to  me  by  many  instances  of  children  losing  all  in- 
terest in  foreign  languages  after  some  drudgery  at 
this  dull  work.  One  child  who  had  lived  abroad 
long  enough  to  become  proficient  in  French  —  speak- 


246       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ing,  reading  and  writing  it  quite  well  at  twelve  years, 
not  only  lost  all  her  fluency  after  four  years  at  an 
American  high  school,  where  she  was  put  in  the  ad- 
vanced class  and  set  to  translating,  but  acquired  such 
a  distaste  for  the  language  she  constantly  heard 
mutilated  that  she  can  now  scarcely  be  persuaded  to 
read  a  line  or  speak  a  word  of  the  tongue  that  was 
once  as  familiar  to  her  as  her  mother  tongue. 

A  reading  acquaintance  with  a  language  can  be 
gained  by  translating,  or  the  comparative  system. 
But  even  here  its  inferiority  is  evident.  How  slow 
and  tedious  is  our  progress  when  every  sentence  in  a 
book  must  be  re-thought  in  our  own  tongue.  And 
what  proportion  of  men  and  women  who  have  studied 
languages  by  the  classical  method  in  their  youth  are 
able  after  leaving  school,  to  read  the  literature  of 
those  languages  fluently  enough  to  enjoy  it? 

As  a  means  of  mental  discipline  translating  has  its 
advantages.  Classical  teachers  deny  that  the  natural 
sciences  have  an  equal  claim.  But  no  humanist  how- 
ever enthusiastic  over  study  for  its  own  sake,  will 
refuse  to  admit  that  the  professed  object  of  studying 
a  foreign  language  is  to  learn  it;  and  if  it  can  be 
learned  better  by  one  system  than  another,  the  prac- 


FOBEIGN  LANGUAGES  247 

tical  plan  should  be  chosen.  Now,  the  only  practical 
plan  is  to  live  the  language  we  wish  to  learn.  To 
act  through  it,  think  in  it,  understand  by  it  and  speak 
it  until  it  has  hecome  dissolved  in  our  blood  and  is  as 
much  part  of  us  as  our  mother  tongue.  One  lan- 
guage learned  thus  is  worth  for  mental  discipline 
twenty  gotten  superficially.  Under  exceptionally 
favorable  circumstances,  as  when  several  languages 
are  spoken  in  a  family  which  is  composed  of  two  or 
three  nationalities,  it  is  possible  to  learn  all  of  them 
very  well.  But  only  persons  with  a  special  gift  for 
languages  ever  get  a  thorough  knowledge  of  more 
than  two.  And  for  all  practical  purposes,  as  well 
as  for  mental  discipline,  two  are  enough. 

An  allusion  must  here  be  made  to  the  exceeding 
carelessness  and  short-sightedness  of  parents  about  one 
matter.  I  know  many  Germans  living  in  New  York 
who  send  their  children  to  American  schools,  anxious 
that  they  should  learn  their  adopted  tongue,  but  ab- 
solutely neglectful  of  the  privilege  that  is  easily 
within  their  reach  of  mastering  two  languages  con- 
secutively, through  home  conversation  in  German. 
Some  parents  who  speak  German  between  themselves 
always  speak  broken  English  when  talking  with  their 


248      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

children!  It  is  incredible  that  when  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult to  learn  a  language  through  the  medium  of  school 
instruction  that  so  ready  a  means  of  acquiring  mas- 
tery of  both  the  inherited  tongue  and  the  adopted 
one  should  be  neglected. 

I  know  one  little  girl  of  ten  whose  acquaintance 
with  three  languages  was  a  marvelous  thing  to  her 
teachers  and  playmates.  Of  Dutch  origin,  she  had 
learned  that  tongue  in  infancy  from  her  parents; 
then,  her  grandmother  being  German,  she  had  ac- 
quired a  good  knowledge  of  that  language  through 
constant  association  with  her.  But  she  had  also, 
lived  some  years  in  France  and  had  gone  to  school 
there,  so  she  could  speak  and  read  French  with  fa- 
cility. Entering  an  American  school  at  the  age  of 
ten,  and  keeping  up,  in  obedience  to  her  wise  parents, 
her  acquaintance  with  the  tongues  learned  in  her  early 
childhood,  she  was  able  to  add  English  to  her  former 
languages  without  any  trouble  at  all,  and  in  a  couple 
of  years  spoke  it  without  any  objectionable  accent. 
This  shows  what  may  be  done  by  using  the  proper 
means  with  young  children  of  mixed  races.  It  is 
much  easier  for  the  child  of  parents  who  have  come 
to  America  from  foreign  lands  to  recollect  their  na- 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  249 

tive  tongue  and  acquire  English  than  to  learn  their 
mother  speech  afterwards,  as  a  foreign  language. 
This  truism  should  not  need  to  be  said,  but  it  is 
so  ignored  that  it  is  necessary  to  impress  upon  par- 
ents their  absurdity  in  sending  their  children  to 
school  here  to  learn  from  books  their  native  —  or  that 
which  is  native  to  their  parents  —  speech.  I  have 
known  this  to  be  done  in  many  instances.  Some 
young  women  whose  father  was  a  learned  German 
physician,  and  never,  during  his  thirty  years  in  this 
country,  forgot  his  native  accent,  absolutely  sent  his 
three  daughters  to  a  German  tutor  when  they  were 
grown,  to  learn  in  a  class  composed  of  Americans, 
the  tongue  that  should  have  been  theirs  by  heritage. 

If  a  child  acquires  German  or  French  before  he  is 
twelve  he  may  then  give  a  couple  of  years  to  the  study 
of  Latin  in  the  preparatory  school,  and  if  he  has 
the  good  fortune  to  learn  it  as  he  should,  as  a  living 
language,  he  will  know  it  pretty  well  by  that  time. 
According  to  the  old-fashioned  method  it  will  take 
him  seven  years  to  get  even  the  slightest  reading 
knowledge  of  it.  The  term  "  dead  language  "  is  a 
strange  misnomer.  If  it  is  dead  it  is  no  longer  a 
language,  any  more  than  a  corpse  is  a  person.  Were 


250      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

I  to  undertake  to  teach  Greek,  of  which  I  know 
nothing,  I  should  take  my  young  pupil  to  Athens  and 
accompany  him  in  his  sports  with  his  young  com- 
rades, so  that  what  we  both  learned  together  we  might 
practise  with  ease  and  naturalness.  There  are  a  few 
schools  where  Latin  and  Greek  are  taught  as  living 
tongues,  and  under  gifted,  enthusiastic  teachers  the 
pupils  make  almost  incredible  progress.  The  Ger- 
man professors  have  the  advantage  over  us  in  a  corps 
of  thoroughly  trained  special  teachers,  but  before  long 
we  shall  probably  equal  them  in  this  respect. 

It  is  an  open  question  whether  study  of  the  classics 
for  the  general  student  is  worth  while.  Spencer  and 
Bain  say  not.  But  Monsieur  Fouillet  utters  these 
trenchant  words :  "  If  boys,  on  leaving  the  lyceum, 
forgot  all  their  Greek  and  Latin  immediately,  the 
cerebral  development  and  the  tendencies  acquired 
would  be  enough  to  prove  the  utility  of  classical 
studies."  But  in  any  event,  the  classics  should  not 
be  entered  upon  before  the  thirteenth  year>  and  may 
be  learned  in  school;  unless  one  of  the  parents 
chooses  to  take  the  trouble  to  dig  up  his  neglected 
lore  and  be  the  assistant  of  his  young  son  or  daugh- 
ter. My  own  mother  who  had  been  an  excellent 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  251 

Greek  scholar  in  her  youth,  could  not  recall  more 
than  enough  to  start  me  on  the  alphabet  when  it  came 
my  turn  to  learn!  And  I  know  one  very  studious 
girl  who  lived  the  life  of  an  anchorite  for  five  years 
to  keep  at  the  head  of  her  class  in  Greek,  but  who, 
after  passing  her  examination,  straightway  proceeded 
to  bury  all  her  knowledge  of  Greek  fathoms  deep  un- 
der more  useful  things,  so  that  within  a  year  she 
could  scarcely  construe  one  page  of  the  "  dead 
tongue."  I  cannot  think  as  Fouillet  does,  that  so 
much  effort  and  so  little  result  is  worth  while.  For 
mental  discipline  I  believe  that  the  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  a  living  language,  like  German,  French  or 
Italian,  is  more  than  equivalent  to  years  of  drudgery 
in  Greek  which  is  to  be  forgotten  at  once  after  pass- 
ing an  examination. 

The  case  is  different  with  Latin,  of  which  every 
educated  person  must  possess  some  knowledge.  Un- 
fortunately very  few  parents  recollect  enough  of  their 
badly  learned  classical  language  to  impart  it  to  their 
children.  We  must  as  a  rule,  depend  upon  the 
schools.  But  modern  languages  are  essentially  the 
business  of  home  teachers,  for  they  are  to  be  learned 
by  the  comparative  method,  that  is,  by  object  teach- 


252       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ing  instead  of  text-books.  From  four  to  say,  ten 
years,  the  child  is  at  its  best  period  for  learning 
languages  by  the  natural  method.  If  the  mother 
is  not  proficient  in  French  or  German  she  will  do  well 
to  call  in  native  tutors,  insisting  upon  object  teaching, 
and  attending  the  lessons  in  order  to  see  that  her 
ideas  are  carried  out.  At  certain  hours  every  day 
—  for  it  is  highly  important  that  no  lapses  occur,  the 
mind  easily  taking  on  the  habit  of  looking  for  cer- 
tain activities  at  regular  hours  daily,  and  lending  it- 
self to  them  with  pleasure  —  there  may  be  "  French 
plays  "  or  "  German  plays  "  which  consist  in  banish- 
ing English  for  the  time  and  carrying  on  the  games 
entirely  in  the  foreign  tongue.  The  child  learns 
phrases  by  the  help  of  gestures  and  accents ;  the  new 
language  appeals  to  him  in  the  same  way  that  his 
native  one  does,  through  his  emotions,  and  the  great 
object  is  gained  that  his  ear  gets  trained  and  he  under- 
stands it  when  spoken.  We  say  that  we  wish  our 
child  to  learn  to  speak  French,  but  that  amounts  to 
nothing  unless  he  can  understand  it  when  others 
speak  it.  We  must  recollect  that  the  most  important 
point  is  to  train  the  ear  and  not  the  eye ;  for  it  is  the 
ear  which  is  the  organ  of  understanding  language. 


FOREIGN  LANGUAGES  253 

And  one  of  the  prime  difficulties  of  an  adult  who  tries 
to  read  French  or  German  after  a  course  of  classical 
instruction  in  them  is  that  he  sees  word  but  does  not 
feel  them  as  he  would  if  he  had  learned  his  language 
orally.  They  should  be  vibrant  and  full  of  melody, 
just  as  English  is  to  him.  There  must  be  no  sense 
of  a  medium  between  the  author  and  himself;  they 
should  be  en  rapport.  Facility  in  reading  can 
scarcely  be  gained  until  at  least  twenty  volumes  have 
been  carefully  read. 

I  had  a  happy  experience  once  in  giving  children 
active  lessons  in  French.  It  was  down  in  Virginia, 
in  that  region  Amelie  Rives  has  made  classic,  the  old 
county  of  Albemarle,  where  when  it  rains,  the  en- 
tire soil  becomes  a  river  of  red  mud,  and  people  must 
find  occupation  within  door  for  consecutive  after- 
noons during  rainy  spells.  There  were  six  children 
in  the  house,  and  it  rained  hard.  I  coaxed  an  oblig- 
ing young  woman  to  play  light  airs  on  the  piano,  and 
getting  all  the  youngsters  together,  taught  them  some 
calisthenics  in  "  Grace,"  with  the  explanations  given 
entirely  in  French.  The  motions  were  gone  over 
several  times,  always  accompanied  by  the  same  words, 
until  even  the  dullest  had  them  impressed  on  his 


254      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

brain.  Then  we  played  games  in  the  big  hall,  and 
spoke  our  directions  for  "  cache-cache  " —  I  spy  — 
and  other  simple  little  games  entirely  in  French.  It 
was  all  a  lively  play,  with  no  mention  of  intended 
instruction,  but  the  children  learned  all  the  num- 
bers, up  to  twenty,  in  a  couple  of  afternoons,  be- 
sides many  words  and  several  phrases.  Was  not 
that  quick  work  ? 

As  soon  as  the  child  becomes  somewhat  familiar 
with  the  language  we  are  teaching  him  through  play, 
we  should  begin  to  read  simple  tales  to  him;  prose 
rather  than  poetry.  The  same  tale  may  be  read  over 
and  over  again,  for  children  are,  happily,  pleased 
with  repetition.  When  they  know  the  little  story  we 
may  have  them  tell  it  to  us  in  their  own  words.  We 
may  adroitly  direct  their  attention  to  the  verb  rather 
than  to  the  substantive,  getting  them  to  describe  ac- 
tion rather  than  things.  For  the  verb  is  the  objec- 
tive point  of  that  language  and  to  know  a  single  one 
so  thoroughly  as  to  be  able  to  apply  it  in  every  ad- 
missible way  is  better  than  to  commit  to  memory 
any  number  of  nouns. 

For  children  who  had  gained  a  fair  acquaintance 
with  the  tongue  in  question  I  devised  something  that 


FOKEIGN  LANGUAGES  255 

had  excellent  results.  There  were  but  two  of  us  to- 
gether at  one  time,  as  the  idea  was  scarcely  applicable 
to  more.  We  took  turns  in  reading  from  a  well 
written  French  book  of  fiction,  in  which  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  conversation,  and  each  was  provided  with 
note-book  and  pencil.  As  one  read,  at  first  slowly, 
the  other  jotted  down  rapidly,  all  the  words  she  could 
catch,  the  reader  never  pausing  to  repeat  or  give  any 
light  on  obscure  points.  The  reporter  had  to  do  just 
the  best  she  could  to  get  her  phrases  as  they  fell  from 
the  reader's  lips.  Then  she  in  turn,  took  the  book 
and  became  the  reader,  reading  the  same  page  that 
had  been  read  to  her  while  the  other  wrote  down  rap- 
idly all  she  heard.  Then,  the  same  page  was  read  by 
each  in  turn,  but  more  rapidly.  The  third  time  it  was 
read  it  was  read  as  fast  as  a  person  ordinarily  speaks 
and  the  reporter  had  to  stir  herself  to  get  down  the 
phrases,  as  she  had  not  the  privilege  of  referring  to 
what  she  had  previously  written  but  was  obliged  to 
depend  entirely  upon  her  memory  and  ear. 

The  competition  was  lively,  and  each  became 
very  ambitious  to  excel  in  this  reporting  busi- 
ness. As  the  book  was  interesting,  we  did  not  weary 
of  it  until  it  had  been  pretty  well  exhausted  as  a 


256       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

medium  of  study,  and  as  we  were  obliged  to  con- 
tinually think  in  the  tongue  we  were  using,  English 
being  thrown  almost  aside  even  in  our  minds  during 
this  lively  work,  wonderful  facility  resulted  in  the 
use  of  French  in  the  course  of  one  winter.  But  the 
difficulty  with  a  language  as  with  music  and  paint- 
ing, is  that  it  cannot  be  neglected  with  impunity. 
Practice  must  be  assiduous  and  faithful,  for  the  lapse 
of  a  few  months  makes  a  sensible  falling  off  in  fluency 
and  knowledge. 

However,  there  is  one  comfort;  knowledge  once 
acquired  can  be  renewed  at  but  little  expense  of  brain 
power.  Persons  have  been  known  to  recall  a  language 
once  known  but  long  since  forgotten,  after  many 
years  of  disuse,  when  mingling  with  people  of  the 
race  among  whom  the  tongue  is  spoken.  And  there 
are  singular  instances  of  a  long-forgotten  language 
coming  back  to  a  dying  person;  showing  that  what 
the  brain  has  once  carefully  registered  stays  there ;  al- 
though a  life  of  occupations  leading  apart  from  the 
accomplishment  appears  to  have  completely  driven 
it  away. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ACCOMPLIS-HMHNTS 

"  But  if  all  the  useless  ornaments  of  our  life  are  to  be 
cut  off  in  the  process  of  adaptation,  evolution  would  empov- 
erish  instead  of  enriching  our  nature." — GEORGE  SAN- 

TAYANA. 

IK  the  days  when  there  was  a  wide  swath  be- 
tween education  for  girls  and  for  boys,  it  was  the 
custom  for  parents  to  be  ambitious  of  making 
their  daughters  "  accomplished "  women.  A  little 
music,  a  little  painting,  a  little  knowledge  of  embroid- 
ering and  burnt  wood  work  entered  into  the  equip- 
ment of  all  gently-bred  girls.  But  colleges  opened 
their  doors  to  women;  Vassar  was  built;  new  ideals 
sprang  to  life  in  the  breasts  of  mothers ;  their  daugh- 
ters were  to  be  trained  for  life,  not  merely  varnished 
and  finished.  And  all  the  softer  pleasures  of  the 
intelligence  were  kicked  out  of  sight  by  the  hoof  of 
sport. 

For  it  is  necessary  for  minds  that  work  hard  to 
257 


258       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

relax  in  some  way.  Recreation  is  a  recognized  fac- 
tor in  health.  After  many  hours  spent  indoors  it 
seemed  the  only  rational  course  for  girls  to  go  to 
the  golf-fields,  to  the  tennis  courts,  to  the  archery 
fields  and  basket-ball  grounds  and  spend  all  the  time 
they  could  spare  in  active  exercise  in  the  open. 
This  sane  practice  has  given  us  a  new  race  of  women ; 
hardy,  fearless,  practical  and  —  wholly  opposed  to 
sentiment  in  every  form.  No  one  is  more  apprecia- 
tive of  the  splendid  physical  endowments  of  modern 
American  women  than  I.  Reared  in  boy-fashion  my- 
self, while  very  young,  that  period  of  "  running 
wild "  probably  tided  over  much  subsequent  im- 
prudent bookishness  later  on;  and  I  wish  that  the 
out-door  life  had  lasted  for  a  much  longer  time.  Yet, 
may  there  not  be  an  excess  of  physical  recreation  in 
a  girl's  training?  If,  for  the  sake  of  our  general 
evolution,  we  are  forced  to  "  cut  off  all  useless  orna- 
ments "  as  Santayana  says,  will  we  not  lose  something 
precious  out  of  life  ? 

Sport  is  a  delightful  and  exhilarating  pastime ;  yet 
the  mind  does  not  particularly  benefit  by  it.  Mental 
recreation  is  necessary  for  the  complete  development 
of  our  nature,  and  nothing  affords  a  better  variation 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  259 

of  intellectual  occupations  than  what  are  called  ac- 
complishments. It  is  said  that  a  man  is  better  for 
a  hobby  of  some  sort ;  likewise,  a  woman  is  much  the 
better  for  an  accomplishment.  A  cultivated  taste  for 
a  fine  art  is  a  resource  against  dulness  and  unrest; 
it  keeps  the  heart  sound  and  satisfied,  the  mind  sane 
and  well  poised.  Parents  should  not  then,  cut  off 
accomplishments  from  their  schedule  of  education, 
but  ought  to  give  a  child  every  opportunity  to  prac- 
tise such  a  safe  and  agreeable  mental  game  as  an  out- 
let to  emotional  energy.  Making  education  wholly 
"  practical "  and  conducive  to  the  work  of  life  stifles 
instincts  that  break  out  later  on  in  various  sorts  of 
wild  excesses.  As  mechanical  musical  instruments 
replace  the  harp,  piano  and  violin ;  and  moving  pic- 
ture shows  replace  home  entertainments  that  require 
mental  effort,  so  in  proportion  will  "  feminism  "  drive 
out  those  old-fashioned  womanly  graces  that  once 
made  home  a  place  to  be  remembered  with  tenderness, 
and  family  relations  something  indescribably  sacred. 
A  number  of  years  ago  there  appeared  in  a  popular 
magazine  one  of  those  cartoons  which  by  a  few  bold 
strokes  depict  the  folly  of  an  epoch.  It  represented 
a  poor  woman  on  her  knees  scrubbing  the  kitchen 


260       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

floor  while  in  the  parlor  her  pretty  daughter  prac- 
tised her  voice  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  piano. 
In  the  mother's  uplifted  eyes,  gleaming  out  of  a 
wrinkled,  care-worn  face,  was  an  expression  of  pride 
and  satisfaction;  by  self-immolation  she  had  made 
her  daughter  a  lady.  Was  it  such  absurd  travesties 
upon  proprieties  as  this  that  brought  upon  music  as 
an  accomplishment  the  reproach  that  it  is  a  mere 
pandering  to  the  vanity  and  idleness  of  young  women 
who  do  not  choose  to  be  useful  ?  There  is  a  terrible 
excess  in  natural  readjustments  of  social  follies,  and 
education  suffers  for  every  craze  that  takes  possession 
of  the  public.  What  is  right  and  proper  in  itself 
falls  into  disfavor  through  the  stupidity  :  f  those  who 
do  not  know  how  to  be  moderate  in  anything. 

Now,  wherever  the  parents'  position  justify  such 
a  course  —  but  not  otherwise  —  children  should  be 
taught  music,  dancing,  painting  and  kindred  ac- 
complishments as  an  essential  part  of  their  home 
training.  Education  has  doubtless  been  improved 
to  some  extent  by  making  it  conduce  to  knowledge 
bearing  upon  the  kind  of  careers  that  are  in  view  for 
young  persons,  but  too  much  zeal  here  inevitably  leads 
to  an  oversight  in  another  place;  the  proper  outlet 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  261 

for  emotion.  Concentration  only  upon  the  objective 
side  of  living  will  develop  in  our  young  people  a  kind 
of  ruggedness  similar  to  that  of  plants  whose  blossoms 
are  continually  cut  off  by  the  gardener  so  that  their 
whole  vitality  may  be  given  to  growth.  They  present 
a  fine  appearance  of  health  and  strength  but  no  sug- 
gestion of  that  grace  and  beauty  that  accompany  a 
fulfilment  of  the  function  that  is  at  once  tender  and 
potent,  delicate  yet  eternal;  the  stretching  out  of 
fibers  toward  that  spiritual  realm  where  sentiment 
and  feeling  make  the  joy  of  life. 

If  adjustment  to  the  ends  we  are  trying  to  realize 
in  this  scientific  age  compels  the  surrender  of  every- 
thing not  distinctly  useful,  we  shall  become  erelong 
a  poverty-stricken  nation  despite  our  vast  material 
wealth.  The  fine  arts  cannot  flourish  in  an  atmosphere 
of  bustle;  the  finer  feelings  develop  best  where  there 
is  leisure  to  throw  out  those  little  mental  tendrils 
which  cling  about  old  associations  and  traditions. 
Much  to  be  pitied  is  the  man  or  woman  who  because 
of  too  great  devotion  to  the  practical  has  lost  the 
faculty  of  meditation  on  the  beautiful.  Who  can  de- 
fine the  limits  to  the  happiness  occasioned  by  the 
merely  picturesque? 


262       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Too  much  earnestness  drives  one  mad.  Let  us 
then,  admit  recreation  into  our  lives  as  a  recognized 
necessity;  not  merely  physical  recreation,  which  re- 
pays us  for  our  time  in  relays  of  health,  quite  as 
tangible  as  any  other  purchasable  article,  but  mental 
recreation,  which  is  the  satisfaction  of  impulses 
reaching  out  toward  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  art. 
We  need  frequent  transitions  from  big  tasks  to  little 
ones,  from  those  that  exercise  reason  to  those  which 
make  distinct  call  upon  the  imagination.  We  gain 
in  cultivating  as  accomplishments  those  things  we 
may  never  fce  able  to  do  very  well,  but  like  to 
do.  The  ambition  to  excel  does  not  then  draw  heavily 
upon  our  resources,  limiting  the  free  sweep  of  our 
enjoyment.  The  sense  of  not  being  too  serious  is 
an  agreeable  variety. 

There  is  a  tendency  at  present  to  pretend  that 
everything  must  have  an  excuse  for  being;  that  it 
must  make  money  or  bring  health.  We  dance  be- 
cause it  is  a  fine  exercise ;  motor  because  being  in  the 
air  is  excellent  for  the  nerves;  sing  to  expand  the 
lungs;  go  to  moving  picture  shows  to  get  information 
about  countries  we  have  not  visited.  It  is  not  frank ; 
this  disguise  of  preference.  We  do  all  these  things 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  263 

because  we  crave  amusement;  because  they  seem  to 
us  agreeable  things  to  do.  If  passing  a  little  time 
at  home  in  the  occupations  which  are  now  out  of 
favor  could  be  made  popular  we  should  once  more 
see  young  persons  going  about  with  sketch  books 
under  their  arms  in  summer,  and  hear  a  little  music 
and  conversation  at  home  in  the  evenings;  perhaps 
even  have  some  moderate  dancing  in  our  own  little 
drawing  rooms  instead  of  a  mad  stampede  to  cabarets ; 
with  consequences  that  threaten  the  foundations  of 
society. 

Let  us  nourish  our  children's  souls.  By  the  ex- 
penditure of  a  little  time  and  money  we  can  develop 
their  natural  tendencies  along  the  line  of  musical  and 
artistic  expressions  so  that  their  minds  may  expand 
harmoniously,  not  grow  up  dwarfed  and  imperfect. 
If  our  girl  has  no  decided  talent  for  music  we  should 
not  enforce  the  harsh  decree  that  excludes  music  en- 
tirely from  her  education,  should  she  like  to  learn 
something  of  the  piano  or  violin.  Only  positive 
aversion  ought  to  excuse  her  from  some  application 
to  an  art  that  will  be  a  resource  to  her;  if  not  an 
occupation  bringing  in  return  in  money  or  fame. 
Every  creature  has  need  of  the  privilege  of  making 


264      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

a  little  melody.  A  small  voice  may  give  happiness 
to  its  possessor;  a  little  flexibility  of  finger  comfort 
her  when  loneliness  or  misfortune  overtake  her.  The 
person  who  adds  to  his  vocation  in  life  an  avocation, 
becomes  independent  of  the  world. 

In  a  good  scheme  of  education  there  is  a  full  and 
complete  preparation  for  life's  serious  labor  kept 
constantly  in  view,  and  also,  indulgence  of  the  tastes 
and  inclinations  that  brighten  life.  Accomplish- 
ments have  the  same  relation  to  the  mind  that  pets 
do  to  the  affections.  They  keep  up  kindly  currents 
of  feeling  that  conduce  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
nature,  and  without  which  we  are  hirelings  to  life's 
business;  joylessly  fulfilling  a  prescribed  task. 

In  the  arts  as  in  science,  the  beginning  is  every- 
thing. A  bad  beginning  may  do  more  damage  than 
can  be  later  on  repaired  by  a  fine  master.  If  it  can 
possibly  be  done,  have  the  child  who  is  to  learn  to 
play  the  piano,  be  under  the  instruction  of  a  real 
artist  in  music  for  the  first  year ;  preferably  a  woman. 
The  primary  object  is  not  technique;  that  will  come 
later  on,  if  there  is  enough  taste  in  the  pupil  to  justify 
a  long  and  severe  training;  the  primary  object  is 
development  of  a  love  for  melody,  as  opposed  to 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  265 

noise.  The  natural  instinct  of  the  child  will  lead  him 
to  play  "  tunes."  Let  him.  But  teach  him  to  make 
the  tunes  true  to  their  measure  of  time  and  pitch. 
Make  him  familiar  from  the  beginning,  with  the 
principle  that  music  is  a  measuring  of  sounds,  so 
that  certain  spaces  intervene  between  them;  that 
unless  the  right  spaces  interpose  the  result  is  un- 
bearable noise.  Is  this  often  explained  to  the  child 
who  is  required  to  "  keep  time  "  as  a  task  ?  It  was 
not  explained  to  me  by  the  stiff  English  governess 
who  kept  my  young  body  in  prison  on  a  hard  stool 
while  she  droned  out  her  everlasting  and  meaningless 
— "  one,  two,  three,  four,"  until  I  nearly  lost  all  my 
natural  love  for  music  under  the  infliction  of  "  keep- 
ing time." 

But  the  child  who  is  made  to  understand  that  time- 
keeping means  measuring  distance  between  sounds 
will  become  interested  in  following  out  a  principle 
that  brings  results.  Give  it  an  example  between 
something  drummed  out  regardless  of  harmony  and 
the  same  thing  measured;  there  can  scarcely  fail  to 
be  an  appreciation  of  the  difference.  If  there  is  we 
must  infer  a  lamentable  absence  of  correctness  of  ear. 
A  poor  ear  can  be  cultivated,  however,  where  there 


266       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

is  present  a  real  taste  for  music.  When  that  too,  is 
absent,  one  must  decide  whether  any  amount  of  musi- 
cal education  is  worth  while,  or  whether  efforts  should 
not  be  directed  toward  some  other  form  of  art. 

While  there  ought  to  be  opportunity  given  for  some 
knowledge  of  all  the  arts,  time  and  energy  should  be 
chiefly  spent  on  that  especial  one  for  which  an  early 
liking  is  shown.  No  child  should  be  made  an  intel- 
lectual prisoner.  Seven  years  is  about  the  right  age 
to  begin  piano  lessons  and  an  hour  each  day  is  as  much 
as  ought  to  be  required  for  practise.  If  the  mother 
is  herself  a  good  musician  there  is  no  better  or  more 
patient  instructor;  yet,  the  more  of  an  artist  she  is 
the  less  likely  is  she  to  give  the  lessons  willingly. 
Perhaps  she  may  be  able  to  effect  the  exchange  of  les- 
sons with  another  mother,  helping  an  advanced  pupil 
in  return  for  primary  instruction  for  her  own  daugh- 
ter, for  it  is  notable  that  those  who  are  gifted  in  music 
detest  the  drudgery  of  teaching  the  young.  Happily, 
there  are  born  teachers,  in  music  as  in  other  branches, 
so  that  one  can  scarcely  fail  to  find  the  right  teacher. 
It  is  really  important  that  the  beginner  should  be 
well  taught.  I  have  seen  too  many  instances  of 
wasted  time  and  money  on  poor  teachers  not  to  advo- 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  267 

cate  this  most  earnestly.  Of  all  things  expression 
should  be  sought  in  the  beginning.  When  there  is  no 
technique  to  make  sounds  melodic,  the  dependence 
must  be  placed  upon  feeling.  Even  a  simple  exercise 
can  be  played  by  a  young  child  so  as  to  be  agreeable 
to  people,  if  she  has  learned  to  put  into  it  the  expres- 
sion native  to  its  spirit.  Consequently,  we  may  dis- 
courage pounding  on  keys  and  unsympathetic  render- 
ing of  airs,  even  when  the  child  is  at  a  very  tender 
age.  The  object  is  music;  not  noise. 

Dancing  is  now  "  a  craze."  It  is  scarcely  neces- 
sary to  suggest  that  it  be  taught  to  children.  But 
there  are  right  and  wrong  ways.  One  of  the  sanest 
is  the  method  that  prevails  in  the  smaller  towns  of 
France,  where  little  classes  are  organized  for  after- 
noon dancing  two  afternoons  a  week,  and  the  mothers 
or  chaperons  sit  along  the  wall  watching,  while  a 
couple  of  teachers  put  the  little  girls  and  boys  through 
their  steps  to  the  music  of  a  piano  exceedingly  well 
played  by  the  third  assistant.  It  is  simply  an  in- 
formal little  ball,  amusing  and  innocent,  affording  op- 
portunities for  companionship  of  a  peaceable  and 
well-bred  character,  with  a  good  deal  of  sensible  in- 
struction thrown  in.  The  French  dances, —  the 


"  Berlin,"  the  "  minuet "  and  the  world-known  "  lanc- 
ers "  are  very  pretty ;  but  the  adaptation  of  our  "  Bos- 
ton "  is  less  happy,  being  a  sort  of  wild  jump,  after  a 
fashion  that  is  called  the  "  American  method."  We 
do  not  like  to  own  it. 

Dancing  may  be  taught  in  small  classes,  better  than 
in  large  ones,  and  every  neighborhood  should  have  its 
organized  class  for  children,  at  prices  low  enough  to 
allow  every  one  to  become  a  member.  Unfortunately, 
prices  for  good  instruction  are  often  prohibitive.  In 
that  case,  the  mother  who  knows  how  to  dance  pretty 
well,  should  invite  some  other  little  ones  to  share 
the  privilege  of  her  own  child,  and  give  them  all 
home  lessons  at  least  twice  a  week.  Make  it  a  little  aft- 
ernoon function,  with  light  refreshments  afterwards. 
No  child  under  the  age  of  twelve  years  should  be 
allowed  to  go  to  a  dance  held  after  night-fall.  I  state 
this  with  more  rigor  than  I  usually  state  any  sugges- 
tion, for  most  parents  are  now  relaxing  the  old  sane 
rule  for  young  people  of  "  early  to  bed  and  early  to 
rise,"  and  letting  them  stay  up  until  all  sorts  of 
hours.  It  is  why  so  many  of  our  young  girls  look 
faded  at  sixteen  and  our  boys  take  to  cigarettes  to 
"  calm  their  nerves."  If  only  we  could  get  ourselves 


ACCOMPLISHMENTS  269 

to  emulate  the  fashion  of  our  sensible  German  friends 
who  make  the  afternoons  the  time  for  recreation,  and 
sit  out  in  gardens  during  the  early  evenings,  sending 
their  children  to  bed  when  the  lights  are  lit.  Not  the 
American  Germans,  however,  who  have  learned  our 
ways. 

In  a  recent  book  * I  have  described  children's  enter- 
tainments, especially  lawn  parties,  which  are  among 
the  pleasantest  of  summer  recreations  for  young  peo- 
ple, and  ought  to  be  more  popular  among  us.  They 
are  exceedingly  popular  in  France. 

i  Novel  Ways  of  Entertaining,  by  Florence  Hull  Winterburn. 
Harper  &  Brothers,  New  York.  Price  $1.00  net. 


CHAPTER  XVII 
POLITICIANS 


"  Complete  living  is  the  aim  of  all  education."  —  TRUM- 
BULU 

THERE  is  always  a  great  run  on  packing  boxes 
at  the  time  of  an  election.  The  boys  want 
them  for  bonfires.  All  the  months  during 
which  the  heads  of  families  are  soberly  laying  in  ad- 
ditions to  their  stock  of  fixed  opinions  and  theories  by 
the  aid  of  their  favorite  newspapers  our  boys  are  mak- 
ing secret  preparations  for  a  timely  outburst  of  en- 
thusiasm. The  zeal  they  display  in  collecting  barrels 
and  other  lumber,  the  parsimony  with  which  they 
hoard  and  the  ingenuity  with  which  they  secrete  their 
ill-gotten  plunder  are  simply  astounding  to  older 
heads. 

I  watched  from  my  window  lately  the  making  of  a 
prodigious  bonfire  to  celebrate  the  last  presidential 
election.  A  swarm  of  boys,  ranging  from  four  to 

eighteen,  buzzed  back  and  forth  from  the  middle  of 

270 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  271 

the  street  to  the  rear  cellar  of  a  corner  grocery  kept 
by  the  father  of  one  of  the  young  patriots.  Each 
time  a  pair  of  panting  fellows  emerged  bearing  aloft 
a  huge  hogshead  or  pile  of  boxes  they  were  greeted 
with  a  triumphant  shout,  and  twenty  hands  assisted 
in  hurling  their  burden  into  the  center  of  a  pyre  which 
was  already  sending  what  seemed  a  dangerous  column 
of  smoke  toward  the  heavens.  The  supply  of  fuel 
was  apparently  inexhaustible  and  the  fun  grew  mad- 
der each  instant.  Joining  hands  the  youthful  fire- 
fiends  were  dancing  around  and  almost  into  the  fire 
when  a  giant  policeman  hove  in  sight  with  all  canvas 
spread  and  a  howl  of  indignation.  Presto !  The  en- 
tire street  was  alive  with  little  flying  figures,  and 
the  cry  of  "  Ginger !  "  echoed  from  one  end  of  the 
block  to  the  other,  as  the  youngsters  scurried  about, 
watching  the  officer's  attempts  to  put  out  the  con- 
flagration, throwing  an  occasional  box  under  his  very 
nose,  and  uttering  groans  or  shouts  as  the  policeman 
or  the  flame  appeared  to  be  momentarily  in  the  as- 
cendant. The  end  did  not  come  for  a  long  hour  and 
when  the  representative  of  law  and  order  finally 
stamped  on  a  handful  of  embers  and  turned  away  — 
the  fire  was  re-kindled  within  ten  minutes. 


272      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

"Boys  will  be  boys!"  ejaculated  indulgent  on- 
lookers ;  and  there  is  no  possible  way  to  keep  young- 
sters from  celebrating  great  occasions  in  their  own 
particular  fashion.  They  will  steal  grocers'  barrels 
and  boxes  and  they  will  defy  parental  and  official  au- 
thority when  their  time  comes,  and  devote  the  whole 
of  their  little  souls  to  "  painting  the  town  red." 

The  truth  is  some  laws  are  meant  to  be  broken, 
for  Solon,  who  knew  how  to  make  the  laws  which 
"  were  not  the  best  he  could  devise  but  the  best  that 
Athens  could  bear "  was  dust  and  ashes  at  that 
prejudiced  epoch  when  America  borrowed  from  her 
Saxon  forebears  some  good  and  other  absurd  regula- 
tions for  the  everlasting  discomfort  of  her  states. 
The  lawyer  clan  study  that  they  may  help  us  escape 
penalties  of  a  code  too  strict  in  many  things.  Not 
long  since  I  heard  the  son  of  a  great  corporation 
lawyer  explain  that  his  father  wished  him  to  study 
law  so  that  he  might  help  the  firm  when  his  time 
came  —  to  "  get  along  easy."  This  is  more  serious, 
but  the  children  are  not  far  wrong  in  believing  that 
at  times  of  great  national  excitement  a  little  rioting 
will  not  be  charged  against  them  very  heavily  by  the 
elders  who  themselves  go  about  on  election  nights 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  273 

tooting  horns  and  springing  watchmen's  rattles. 
Next  day  these  playthings  are  contemptuously  thrown 
aside  and  the  fathers  go  to  their  business  with  cus- 
tomary sobriety.  A  president  is  elected;  one  party 
is  satisfied,  the  other  accepts  defeat  philosophically; 
the  country  settles  down,  and  the  children  go  back 
to  their  lessons.  But  nobody  questions  them  as  to 
the  meaning  of  last  night's  frolic;  nobody  uses  it  to 
impress  on  them  their  own  future  responsibility  in 
government. 

It  is  incomprehensible  how  parents  can  let  slip  such 
favorable  opportunities  to  instruct  their  children  in 
fundamental  matters,  ordinarily  tame  and  dull  to 
their  young  spirits,  but  at  such  instants  thrilling  with 
interest.  The  time  to  impress  any  lesson  in  morals 
is  at  the  moment  that  the  child  is  awake  to  the  idea  of 
morality  and  its  significance;  not  at  those  other 
periods  when  he  is  indifferent  to  any  aspect  of  the 
question.  With  great  adroitness  and  tact  should 
general  ideas  be  suggested,  and  then  left  to  ripen 
in  the  hearers'  minds.  Most  of  the  very  slight  po- 
litical education  children  receive  at  home  consists 
in  disconnected  prejudices  about  individuals.  They 
believe  that  certain  men  are  "  bad  for  the  country  " 


274      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

and  otters  "  good."  Why  or  wherefore  they  could  not 
possibly  explain  excepting  that  "  father  says  so." 
They  are  seldom  given  precepts  of  conduct,  founded 
upon  sociological  laws,  and  aided  to  solve  problems  for 
themselves.  In  this  respect  how  inferior  is  our 
method  of  training  from  that  of  the  ancient  Persians ! 
Xenophon's  history  of  the  education  of  the  boy  Cy- 
rus, is  full  of  illuminating  suggestions.  One  of  the 
lessons  early  impressed  on  this  future  ruler  over  a 
great  nation  was  that  he  should  so  manage  his  govern- 
ment that  "  the  citizens  should  not  be  capable  of  any 
act  that  was  base  or  vile."  Nor  should  be  punished 
for  vile  acts,  but  should  not  be  capable  of  them.  Oh, 
what  an  ideal  realm,  where  government  was  merely 
preventive  of  wickedness  and  rule  was  benignant  and 
paternal!  Cyrus  became  so  enlightened  that  one  of 
the  most  profound  thoughts  on  justice  that  ever  was 
expressed  by  mortal  emanates  from  him :  — "  No  one 
has  any  business  with  government  who  is  not  better 
than  the  governed."  In  all  these  centuries  have  we 
advanced  beyond  the  careful  training  of  the  Persian 
youths,  who  were  taught  to  do  well  two  things ;  — 
draw  the  bow  and  speak  the  truth?  Courage  and 
honesty;  absolute  courage,  uncompromising  honesty. 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  275 

Are  they  not  all  of  political  virtue  ?  No, —  we  should 
add  one  more  —  modern  society  has  developed  this 
virtue  through  the  evolution  of  generosity.  We  now 
believe  in  succoring  the  weak.1 

History  may  be  made  to  bear  upon  moral  training. 
Children  get  deductions  from  concrete  examples  much 
quicker  than  from  bare  facts.  Even  in  the  epoch  of 
their  folk-lore  tales  the  prudent  mother  will  find  sug- 
gestions from  fairyland  to  point  her  great  morals. 
The  fairies  are  kind,  generous,  helpful ;  they  submit 
to  proper  laws  and  revolt  only  against  tyranny. 
Primitive  people  are  simple  in  their  ideas,  needing  but 
little  supervision,  but  they  too,  must  obey  certain 
regulations  that  safeguard  the  general  community. 
From  history  of  the  ancients,  with  their  out-breaks  of 
oppression,  grounded  on  narrowness  and  religious 
bigotry,  to  the  narrations  of  our  own  times,  rich  les- 
sons may  be  borrowed  and  endless  interest  stimulated 
in  noble  deeds.  But  the  mother  should  recollect  that 
the  best  lesson  she  can  give  her  child  of  justice  and 
equity  is  the  practice  of  those  virtues  toward  him- 

1  As  this  book  goes  to  press  the  most  dreadful  war  the  world 
has  known  annihilates  the  optimistic  hopes  of  the  Hague 
Peace  Treaties.  Alas,  "  Man's  inhumanity  to  man  must  make 
the  angels  weep." 


self.  The  mother  whose  ideas  of  political  govern- 
ment are  perverted  by  the  frenzied  pursuit  of  one 
particular  end  —  which  may  be  premature,  unwise, 
unimportant  —  whose  mind  is  warped  and  distorted 
in  all  its  process  by  fanatical  adherence  to  a  single 
idea,  so  that  more  general  ideas,  greater  principles, 
are  subordinated  to  the  insignificant  item, —  is  un- 
worthy to  direct  the  moral  education  of  her  sons  and 
daughters.  There  are  misguided  mothers  who  are 
at  this  instant  making  scape-goats  of  their  children, 
catch-traps  to  inveigle  into  their  maws  the  one  morsel 
on  which  they  have  set  their  appetites,  and  who  have 
concentrated  all  their  efforts  on  inspiring  in  baby 
breasts  a  hatred  of  laws  that  seem  partial  to  men  over 
women.  Have  they  any  conception  of  the  rancor,  the 
bigotry,  the  unwholesome  feelings  they  are  exciting  in 
hearts  so  young  that  they  should  be  shielded  from 
every  suggestion  of  partisanship  on  any  question  ? 
May  wisdom  come  to  these  mothers  before  it  is  too 
late. 

We  are  still  under  the  old  prejudice  that  young 
minds  cannot  grasp  a  general  principle,  and  that 
philosophical  reflections  are  unwelcome  to  them.  But 
in  reality  even  very  young  children  are  by  nature 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  277 

philosophical  and  they  delight  in  a  broad,  general 
view.  Indeed,  to  generalize  is  their  especial  tend- 
ency. It  is  very  easy  to  give  them  right  ideas  about 
government,  if  a  little  pains  are  taken  at  the  right 
time ;  that  is,  when  they  are  interested  in  the  matter. 
A  very  small  minority  of  thinking  teachers  have  re- 
cently grown  to  a  recognition  of  the  need  of  some  in- 
struction for  young  people  in  the  science  and  art  of 
politics.  Some  books  have  been  written  for  their  en- 
lightenment ;  notably  Nordhoff 's  "  Politics  for  Young 
Americans."  But  I  should  not  advise  parents  to  de- 
pend upon  it  as  a  means  of  complete  instruction. 
Politics  in  the  abstract  make  but  dry  reading,  and 
very  few  children  have  such  a  thirst  for  knowledge 
about  government  that  they  will  delve  into  a  mass 
of  mere  words  for  elusive  ideas.  A  parent  who  has 
himself  a  clear  understanding  of  the  principles  of 
government  and  is  moderately  free  from  prejudices, 
can  readily  give  all  necessary  instruction  to  his  chil- 
dren. Bright  young  people  catch  up  suggestions 
here  and  there  which  stimulate  their  desire  for  sound 
information.  Over-hearing  arguments  and  disputes 
they  beseech  you  for  "  the  truth."  Too  often  they 
are  given  scraps  and  rags  in  place  of  clean,  whole 


278      THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

fabric.  It  is  not  very  easy  for  a  person  who  is  in 
the  habit  of  thinking  rather  loosely  himself  to  classify 
his  ideas  and  reduce  them  to  a  clear,  strong  formula. 
This  is  going  at  once  to  the  bottom  of  things,  and 
not  every  one  can  do  it.  But  nothing  less  satisfies 
children,  and  nothing  less  should  satisfy  us. 

We  find  out  for  the  first  time  how  shallow  is  our 
knowledge  of  some  fundamental  matters  when  our 
small  one  puts  the  question, — 

"  Mother,  what  is  government  ?  " 

Through  our  startled  mind  creeps  an  old  formula, 
"  by  the  people,  for  the  people,"  and  we  reply  with 
decision,  "  The  people,  my  dear."  The  child  hesi- 
tates. He  will  not  ask  what  "  people  "  means,  for 
any  baby  knows  that ;  but  he  goes  forth  with  a  sense 
of  mystification.  Thrown  upon  his  own  resources  he 
thinks  of  the  personality  most  commonly  associated 
with  public  events  and  concludes  that  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  government  means  police.  Many,  many  little 
ones  have  a  general  impression  to  this  effect,  and 
their  love  of  the  laws  of  their  country  is  in  ratio 
to  their  love  of  those  functionaries  whose  aim  in  life 
seems  to  be  to  restrict  the  natural  liberties  and  enjoy 
ments  of  the  young.  When  these  young  people  attain 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  279 

their  majority  it  is  not  probable  that  it  will  seem  to 
them  a  matter  of  vital  importance  how  they  vote. 
They  will  no  doubt  cast  their  vote  where  it  will  be  of 
most  benefit  to  themselves. 

It  is  dangerous  to  let  our  children  form  their  ideas 
of  politics  on  the  basis  of  street  experiences.  The 
public  schools  earnestly  undertake  to  inculcate  sound 
ideas  regarding  politics,  and  do  so  to  a  very  large 
extent.  Yet  before  I  would  entrust  this  part  of  my 
child's  training  to  any  school  I  should  want  to  be 
very  sure  of  the  character  of  the  teacher.  It  is  highly 
improbable  that  he  will  present  cool,  calm  truths,  un- 
colored  by  his  own  preferences.  He  cannot  His 
tones  and  emphasis  betray  him.  If  he  is  popular 
with  his  pupils  they  will  judge  as  he  judges ;  if  they 
dislike  him  they  will  go  contrary  to  everything  he 
advocates  even  though  his  utterances  are  as  worthy  as 
those  of  Rhadamanthus. 

Who  is  to  be  trusted  to  teach  impartial  ideas  of 
politics  or  of  religion  ?  "  We"  said  my  Sunday 
school  teacher,  the  niece  of  the  bishop,  "  are  the 
church.  All  others  are  denominations !  "  And  it 
was  only  through  the  providential  intervention  of  a 
tattered  edition  of  a  patriotic  history  of  the  United 


280      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

States,  describing  in  graphic  manner  the  sufferings 
of  our  soldiers  during  certain  campaigns  of  the  Revo- 
lution that  I  was  enabled  to  offset  the  bigoted  rela- 
tion of  colonial  history  by  my  opinionated  English 
governess,  whose  thin  cheeks  used  to  burn  as  she 
almost  called  George  Washington  a  traitor ! 

There  is  too  much  emotion  and  too  little  reason 
in  the  way  we  deal  with  politics.  We  talk  too  much 
of  parties  and  persons  and  too  little  of  principles. 
Our  children  know  little  beyond  the  fact  that  they 
are  huzzahing  for  some  one  leader  in  opposition  to 
another.  Americans  are  very  good-humored  and 
bear  no  malice.  The  day  after  a  presidential  elec- 
tion I  heard  a  street  lounger  hail  a  passing  acquaint- 
ance in  this  fashion,  "  Hullo,  Jim,  how's  T.  R. 
now?  "  And  the  friend  rejoined  with  the  most  ami- 
able of  accents,  "  He's  all  right,  my  boy !  " 

This  is  pleasant,  but  "  life  is  real,  life  is  ear- 
nest," and  a  deep  responsibility  rests  upon  us  to  give 
our  children  a  keener  insight  into  the  great  principle 
upon  which  government  rests  than  they  can  gain  by 
listening  to  flippant  repartee  and  idle  campaign  talk. 

I  think  we  scarcely  take  enough  account  of  the 
vagueness  and  misapprehension  of  the  child  mind 


INFANT  POLITICIANS  281 

toward  some  abstract  matters  that  we  might  make 
plain  to  them  by  taking  a  little  pains.  When  I  was 
very  small  I  used  often  to  accompany  my  father 
to  the  public  buildings  in  Washington  city.  Looking 
with  awe  and  love  at  the  marble  dome  of  the  Capitol 
I  would  ask  to  whom  it  belonged. 

"  To  everybody." 

"Tome?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Then,"  I  would  rejoin,  after  a  period  of  silent 
pondering,  "  why  can't  I  have  my  own  part  to  take 
away  ?  " 

The  answer  to  this  was  only  a  vague  smile,  for  he 
apparently  did  not  find  it  worth  while  to  enter  into 
even  a  simple  explanation  for  the  enlightenment  of 
a  little  girl  who  was  only  seven  years  old.  Yet, 
through  all  these  years  I  have  kept  a  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  my  wonder  and  my  earnest  desire  to  under- 
stand. I  should  have  remembered  equally  well,  per- 
haps, a  simple  and  succinct  reply  to  my  question. 

We  never  know  what  part  of  the  day's  experience 
will  register  itself  indelibly  upon  a  little  child's 
brain.  A  parent  should  let  no  single  opportunity 
slip  of  implanting  useful  ideas.  And  what  he  says 


282      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

to-day  he  may  have  to  repeat  to-morrow  in  another 
form.  No  matter;  it  is  by  adding  bit  to  bit  that 
the  idea  finally  grows  solid  in  the  little  one's  mind. 
In  the  midst  of  hurried  and  absorbing  occupations  we 
should  pause  to  answer  a  searching  question ;  not  in  a 
roundabout,  careless  fashion,  but  in  a  manner  that 
will  enable  the  child  to  carry  on  the  train  of  thought 
for  himself.  Give  the  little,  perplexed  thing  a  start ! 
It  is  necessary  for  the  mother  to  read  and  digest  one 
or  two  authoritative  books  in  every  department  of 
knowledge,  so  that  she  may  get  from  a  large  store 
of  facts  a  sound  and  genuine  principle  that  she  may 
offer  as  a  beacon  light  to  her  child.  There  are  fine 
opportunities  now  for  women  to  gain  acquaintance 
with  the  laws  of  their  country.  "  Societies  for  Politi- 
cal Study  "  abound.  Before  long  every  mother  should 
have  learned  enough,  either  from  taking  sides  in  de- 
bates or  from  reading  reports  of  lectures,  to  be  com- 
petent to  instruct  her  child  in  the  science  of  govern- 
ment. I  wonder  how  many  mothers  are  intending 
to  apply  their  knowledge  to  this  purpose? 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
THE  ADVANTAGES  OP  TRAVEL 

"  I  should  like  to  have  the  pupil  begin  to  travel  in  his 
infancy,  especially  —  thereby  killing  two  birds  with  one 
stone  — •  into  neighboring  countries  where  his  tongue,  while 
it  is  yet  supple,  may  be  formed  to  new  languages." —  MON- 
TAIGNE. 

WE  are  truly  a  nation  of  travelers.  It  is 
said  that  the  first  thing  an  American 
does  when  he  settles  a  new  piece  of 
country  is  to  build  a  railroad.  Almost  simultane- 
ously goes  upward  the  smoke  from  the  chimney  of 
a  school-house.  The  smoke  stack  of  the  locomotive 
offers  greater  attractions  to  the  lad  racing  along  with 
his  carelessly  held  pile  of  books  than  do  the  desk 
and  bench  with  their  suggestions  of  knowledge.  He 
loiters  to  observe  the  engineer  descend  at  a  station 
to  oil  his  machinery  and  notes  critically  the  condi- 
tion of  wheels  and  pistons.  What  a  nuisance  it  is  to 
have  to  spend  hours  in-doors,  over  dull  lessons ! 

283 


284:      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

There  is  reason  for  this  instinctive  preference. 
The  one  thing  breathes  the  fulness  of  actual  life ;  the 
other  is  but  a  preparatory  step  toward  action.  Book 
knowledge  is,  compared  with  actual  experience,  as 
"  moonlight  unto  sunlight,  as  water  unto  wine,"  in 
its  effect  upon  character.  What  we  read  influences 
our  thoughts  but  what  we  see  and  hear  quickens  our 
blood  and  stirs  our  feelings.  Pedants  become  narrow 
in  their  sympathies,  while  travelers  naturally  grow 
tolerant,  excusing  much  because  they  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  compare  men  with  their  neighbors  and  to 
understand  the  limitations  of  natural  environments. 
All  except  dreamers  are  natural  explorers.  The 
more  civilized  a  nation  is  the  more  adventurous  are 
its  citizens.  In  all  times  it  has  been  the  policy  of 
enlightened  rulers  to  send  its  wisest,  most  responsible 
men  to  visit  other  countries  for  the  purpose  of  study- 
ing their  social  conditions.  In  olden  times  the  sons 
of  kings  passed  certain  terms  among  neighboring 
people,  not  more  to  establish  friendly  relations  than  to 
discover  the  reason  for  their  prosperity  cfr  their 
poverty,  and  return  to  put  their  new  wisdom  in  prac- 
tise for  their  own  benefit.  Increase  of  knowledge 
and  a  broader  understanding  of  human  nature  have 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TRAVEL     285 

been  the  avowed  reasons  for  traveling,  but  there  are 
unacknowledged  reasons  that  exert  even  a  stronger 
influence. 

There  is  a  certain  spirit  of  restlessness  that  seeks 
vent  in  mere  change  of  place,  without  regard  to  any 
intellectual  advantage  that  may  come  of  it.  Ger- 
mans call  it  the  "  wanderlust."  French  people  are 
singularly  free  from  it,  because  they  are  intensely 
patriotic  and  exceedingly  occupied  with  their  per- 
sonal development.  When  they  go  abroad  it  is  with 
a  set  purpose;  either  to  accumulate  money  or  ideas. 
But  they  always  intend  to  return  home  to  let  their 
native  country  get  the  advantage  of  whatever  they 
may  have  gained.  The  Americans,  however,  often 
travel  aimlessly;  because  it  is  the  fashion;  because 
they  have  money  to  squander ;  because  they  are  tired 
and  want  variety,  of  any  kind  whatsoever.  There 
are  bureaus  that  now  take  charge  of  these  restless 
people  and  give  them  a  little  education  in  art  and 
geography  at  so  much  per  mile.  Railroad  guides 
indicate  what  they  are  to  admire,  and  sight-seeing 
vans  meet  them  at  stations  to  prevent  their  getting 
lost  and  wandering  around  to  look  at  the  wrong 
things  in  strange  cities.  I  think  all  this  must  do  a 


good  deal  of  good.  But  there  are  a  few  people  who 
like  to  make  up  their  own  itineraries;  who  plan  long 
in  advance  of  a  trip,  and  arrange  successive  journeys 
so  that  in  the  course  of  time  they  may  go  over  a  great 
deal  of  space  and  get  varied  impressions  of  scenery 
and  industries.  Their  notebooks  are  very  unortho- 
dox, but  they  gather  in  impressions  that  broaden 
their  general  views. 

How  many  parents,  though,  consider  that  sys- 
tematic travel,  undertaken  deliberately  and  with  a 
definite  purpose,  has  an  important  part  to  play  in 
education?  It  has  long  been  customary  to  add  the 
finishing  touch  to  the  education  of  a  son  or  daughter 
by  a  term  of  foreign  travel.  But  often  it  is  a  costly 
and  disappointing  experiment  because  it  is  under- 
taken  without  any  true  feeling  of  its  object  and  aim. 
The  young  people  go  merely  for  pleasure  and  from 
the  desire  of  increasing  their  social  importance. 
They  wander  through  cathedrals  and  picture  galleries, 
gape  at  Constantinople,  shudder  over  Egypt,  and  on 
the  whole,  wish,  as  did  poor  Caddy  Jellaby,  that 
"  Africa  was  dead  " ;  since  it  only  exists  to  bore  and 
weary.  But  their  return  home  is  a  triumph,  for 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TRAVEL     287 

they  "  have  been  abroad  for  six  months,  you  know !  " 
And  until  they  go  again,  and  get  shocked  out  of  their 
egotism  by  a  wider  view  of  something  seen  hurriedly 
and  miscomprehended,  they  talk  learnedly  of  Paris, 
London  and  Rome,  which  they  do  not  know  in  the 
least. 

Superficial  sight-seeing  is  not  travel.  Old  Doctoi; 
Johnson  remarked  that  foreign  travel  added  little  to 
the  facilities  of  conversation  in  those  who  had  been 
abroad.  But  then  he  was  critical  as  to  what  con- 
stitutes conversation ;  it  really  does  afford  themes  for 
talk.  But  very  few  travelers  in  the  Old  World  give 
their  stay-at-home  friends  anything  worth  having 
when  they  come  back.  Usually  they  seem  to  have 
been  jaded,  confused,  satiated  with  variety.  Their 
impressions  have  not  been  classified  and  remain  per- 
manently incoherent. 

It  is  deeply  true  that  anything  which  is  under- 
taken without  a  moral  impulse  for  its  basis  cannot 
enlighten  us,  but  merely  satisfies  the  instinct  of  su- 
perficial curiosity.  There  is  a  vast  difference  be- 
tween the  mass  of  rubbish  brought  back  from  over  the 
seas  by  the  newspaper  reporter  who  "  does  "  the  globe 


within  a  limited  number  of  days,  on  a  wager,  and  the 
calm,  well  digested  views  of  such  travelers  as  Bayard 
Taylor  and  Paul  Bourget. 

The  one  made  the  voyage  to  Europe  while  he  was 
young,  under  circumstances  of  extreme  deprivation, 
which  few  young  persons  would  now  think  endurable. 
"  An  enthusiastic  desire  of  visiting  the  Old  World 
haunted  me  from  early  childhood,"  he  says  in 
"  Views-a-Foot."  And  he  observed  with  simplicity 
in  the  introduction  that  such  a  journey  allowed  him 
greater  opportunities  than  could  be  enjoyed  by  richer 
tourists  for  the  study  of  human  nature  in  every  con- 
dition of  life.  Bourget,  journeying  luxuriously 
through  America,  avowed  the  same  aim.  Somehow, 
I  like  the  French  critic  better,  warmly  as  my  sym- 
pathy goes  out  to  the  brilliant  young  American. 
Bourget  succeeded  in  more  completely  placing  him- 
self en  rapport  with  the  country  he  visited.  To  un- 
derstand other  people  well  it  is  necessary  to  efface 
oneself  to  a  certain  extent  in  their  company,  and 
get  their  point  of  view. 

And  this  is  where  our  young  people  are  generally 
at  fault.  They  go  away  from  home  to  be  seen  and 
heard;  they  carry  their  egotism,  their  little  bundle 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TEAVEL     289 

of  prejudices  with  them.  It  is  wonderful  how 
deeply  imbued  even  a  little  child  can  be  with  feelings 
antagonistic  to  people  whose  customs  are  different 
from  those  that  prevail  in  his  own  home.  It  is  par- 
ents who  create  this  inflexibility.  They  too  often 
provide  for  their  children's  entrance  into  the  world 
by  painting  that  world  as  bad.  "  My  dear,  beware 
of  wandering  beyond  the  gate,"  warned  a  Russian 
mother  when  her  young  son  reached  the  age  of  curi- 
osity. "  The  people  will  dynamite  you  if  you  go 
out  of  the  park." 

Is  it  better  to  be  dynamited  young  or  grow  up  to 
hate  and  fear  mankind  ? 

Few  mothers  have  the  self-restraint  to  keep  their 
opinions  concerning  other  people  to  themselves,  leav« 
ing  to  their  children  the  valuable  training  to  be  got 
by  the  constant  correction  of  hasty  ideas,  through 
experience.  Childhood  should  be  adaptable,  but  in 
our  country  it  seldom  is.  With  the  true  American 
temperament  the  wax  of  infancy  hardens  quickly 
into  the  marble  of  maturity.  There  is  therefore, 
great  need  of  leaving  to  children  as  long  as  possible, 
their  natural  credulity  and  confidingness.  It  is  sad 
to  hear  a  young  skeptic  criticise  his  elders;  to  see  a 


290      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

sneer  on  baby  lips.  I  should  rather  watch  my  child 
closely,  so  that  no  harm  might  come  to  his  innocence, 
and  let  him  believe  a  little  longer  that  the  world  is  all 
good,  true  and  beautiful.  Detestable  is  that  doctrine 
of  preparing  the  young  for  life  by  showing  them  its 
uglier  side  first.  It  is  dangerous  to  hold  up  the  ex- 
amples of  evil  before  children,  for  from  this  time 
they  will  look  for  it  and  expect  to  find  it  everywhere. 
Let  us  train  them  to  right  standards  and  let  them  do 
their  own  comparing.  When  they  go  out  among 
strangers  it  should  be  in  the  mental  attitude  of  respect 
for  their  peculiarities.  "  Doubtless,"  we  should  sug- 
gest, "  you  appear  as  queer  to  them." 

If  upon  childish  simplicity  there  has  been  grafted 
a  broad  interest  in  other  people  and  other  lands, 
journeying  will  become  a  valuable  part  of  education 
during  the  earlier  years.  Babies  should  not,  ordi- 
narily, be  taken  on  journeys,  with  a  view  to  their 
intellectual  advantage.  At  the  bottle  age  the 
jolting  of  cars  while  encouraging  to  repose  of  body 
is  often  provocative  of  spleen  and  unreasonable 
prejudices  against  strange  countries !  Seven  years  at 
least,  should  have  been  attained  by  the  young  person 
before  his  mind  will  be  in  a  state  to  appreciate  even 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TKAVEL     291 

the  more  general  aspects  of  foreign  lands.  It  ia 
quite  doubtful  if  children  get  much  permanent  bene- 
fit from  trips  to  Europe.  For  the  purpose  of  learn- 
ing modern  languages  residence  abroad  for  a  few 
years,  between  the  ages  of  seven  and  twelve,  is  of 
great  advantage.  But  otherwise  than  for  the  sake 
of  the  languages,  these  tours  are  rather  detrimental 
than  useful.  To  see  many  things  which  cannot  be 
understood,  and  which  there  is  no  real  wish  to  under- 
stand, brings  about  an  indifference  toward  what  19 
strange.  Afterward,  when  the  proper  age  to  appre- 
ciate such  things  arrives,  the  edge  of  curiosity  will 
have  been  dulled,  and  the  cream  of  the  first  impres- 
sion skimmed  away.  The  youthful  tourist  often 
shows  in  his  face  that  he  is  confronted  with  greater 
wonders  than  he  can  take  in.  He  gets  blase  with 
the  extraordinary.  He  has  begun  at  the  wrong  end, 
and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  can  ever  get  back  the  fresh- 
ness, the  enthusiastic  curiosity  which  has  been 
quenched. 

All  this  is  unnatural.  The  young  are  eager  ex- 
plorers when  they  are  journeying  toward  that  which 
has  interest  for  them.  But  their  sympathies  are  more 
with  the  present,  with  the  near-by.  For  this  reason 


292       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

we  should  be  ruled  by  the  axiom  of  our  greatest 
philosopher  and  "  proceed  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown."  Familiarize  a  child  early  with  his  im- 
mediate surroundings  and  so  prepare  him  gradually 
for  extended  journey  ings.  Show  him  all  the  inter- 
esting features  of  his  native  place,  the  haunts  which 
strangers  come  to  see,  but  which  probably  you  have 
yourself,  never  taken  the  trouble  to  visit.  How 
often  I  have  heard  elderly  men  and  women  say  that 
they  always  meant  to  go  to  see  such  and  such  a 
place,  within  easy  access  of  their  homes,  but  haven't 
got  there  yet ! 

Journeyings  with  little  ones  should  always  be 
leisurely,  not  hurried.  The  parent  should  be  an  in- 
telligent, patient  guide,  ready  to  explain  matters  that 
arouse  the  child's  interest;  ready  to  lead  him  on  to 
fresh  scenes  with  increased  power  to  understand  them. 
Alas,  mothers  mostly  love  their  children's  bodies 
more  than  they  love  their  intellects.  They  are  so- 
licitous for  their  souls,  but  know  comparatively  little 
about  the  working  of  their  minds.  They  often  seem 
to  have  no  conception  of  their  vast  intellectual  re- 
sponsibility. Look  at  the  average  mother,  leaning 
back  in  the  day  coach  of  a  Westward-bound  express. 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TRAVEL     293 

She  is  absorbed  in  her  paper-backed  novel.  She  left 
home  determined  to  leave  all  her  cares  behind  her; 
to  see  new  things  that  will  rest  her  by  their  variety. 
She  reads  persistently.  Nevertheless,  there  is  her 
child  —  a  bright-faced,  rather  wistful  looking  little 
creature  of  half  a  dozen  years. 

She  turns  from  the  window.  "  Look,  mamma, 
what  river  is  that  ?  " 

"  That,  child  —  oh,  that  is  the  same  river  we  saw 
awhile  ago." 

"  Mamma,  quick !  What  is  that  great  building 
showing  against  the  sky  ?  Such  a  queer  shape !  We 
are  in  another  town." 

"  So  we  are,  child.  I  don't  know !  Amuse  your- 
self. Don't  bother  me ! " 

An  elderly  man  in  the  rear  catches  the  child's  dis- 
appointed gaze  as  the  mother  settles  back  to  her  book 
and  shrugs  his  shoulders  with  a  cynical  smile.  Is 
she  ignorant  or  careless  ?  Something  of  both.  The 
fathers  are  a  little  better,  because  it  is  more  of  a 
novelty  to  them  to  hear  their  children's  questions. 
Then  too,  they  are  more  objective.  Their  business 
keeps  them  in  touch  with  the  outside  world.  I  have 
heard  a  man  say  that  one  should  never  ask  a  direction 


294      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

of  a  woman ;  ten  to  one,  she  will  make  a  misleading 
mistake.  However,  there  are  charming  exceptions; 
when  a  woman  does  know  the  way  she  will  often  go 
far  out  of  her  path  to  help  another.  But  children 
usually  prefer  taking  trips  with  their  fathers.  Be- 
sides heing  more  interesting,  they  are  usually  allowed 
more  personal  independence,  and  they  learn  to  take 
care  of  themselves. 

There  are  very  few  ideal  guardians,  such  as  Mr. 
George  in  the  "  Hollo  "  books.  He  trains  his  young 
nephew  to  take  charge  of  little  excursions,  and  to 
make  his  own  way,  unaided,  among  strangers  in  a 
foreign  country  where  a  tongue  unfamiliar  to  the 
lad  is  spoken.  Many  valuable  hints  can  be  gleaned 
by  thoughtful  parents  from  these  little  books,  which 
are  meant  particularly  for  children.  The  idea  of 
permitting  a  lad  or  even  a  girl,  to  organize  and  take 
charge  of  small  trips  is  not  a  bad  one ;  provided  they 
know  the  ground  somewhat.  There  could  be  less 
benefit  if  the  ground  to  be  gone  over  is  altogether 
strange.  In  that  case  a  mother  ought  to  be  cicerone, 
and  study  up  her  itinerary  a  little  in  advance,  so  that 
no  chance  of  thorough  observation  may  be  lost  Bet- 
ter for  any  child  to  know  well  one  landscape,  one 


THE  ADVANTAGES  OF  TRAVEL     295 

county,  one  state,  than  to  have  been  a  superficial  globe 
trotter. 

I  do  not  say  that  one  should  see  the  whole  of  his 
own  country  before  going  abroad;  but  he  should  see 
its  characteristic  features.  Is  there  anything  su- 
perior to  Niagara  in  Europe?  I  think  not.  And 
the  Rocky  Mountains  are  beyond  description  in 
words.  All  the  Western  continent  is  rich  in  surprises 
and  marvels.  And  our  land  is  the  land  of  the  living. 
Offering  astounding  contrasts,  presenting  in  little  all 
the  races  and  something  of  their  life,  it  yet  deals 
with  what  touches  ourselves  at  every  point,  and  there- 
fore is  the  more  comprehensible  by  young  minds. 
It  is  most  interesting  to  them,  because  they  are  nat- 
urally in  sympathy  with  it.  Life,  progress,  fresh 
creative  forces  at  work  everywhere,  make  of  America 
the  land  of  vigorous  youth,  while  Europe,  full  of  dead 
interests,  mingled  at  every  turn  with  suggestions  that 
appeal  to  a  mature,  cultivated  mind,  may  well  be 
reserved  as  the  cap-sheaf  of  a  complete  education. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

TALENTED  CHILDREN 

"  Tell  me  what  you  admire  and  I  will  tell  you  what  you 
are;  at  least,  as  regards  your  talents,  tastes  and  character." 
—  SAINTE-BEUVE. 

IF  we  would  know  whether  our  child  has  any  kind 
of  ability  that  is  likely  to  bring  him  to  distinc- 
tion it  is  necessary  for  us  to  understand  the 
signs  that  indicate  the  presence  of  talent. 

The  first  and  most  positive  sign  is  a  strong  taste 
for  some  particular  kind  of  effort.  Many  and  various 
as  tastes  are  they  are  all  based  upon  one  single  founda- 
tion, so  that  where  that  is  present  we  may  be  sure 
that  capacity  is  present  I  do  not  allude  to  mere 
fancies,  or  likings  for  artificial  and  trivial  things ;  but 
to  those  preferences  that  seem  to  be  rooted  in  char- 
acter. One  may  have  a  taste  for  every  sort  of 
frivolity,  but  that  is  merely  a  passion  of  the  senses, 

not  of  the  mind.     It  is  curious  that  every  great  ca- 

296 


TALENTED  CHILDREN  297 

pacity  has  its  ignoble  satellite,  a  kind  of  trailer  that 
often  puts  on  the  cast-off  garments  of  its  leader  and 
deceives  the  unwary  on-looker  by  its  flaunting  airs. 
A  child  under  the  influence  of  one  of  these  mock 
talents  will  exhibit,  perhaps,  some  signs  of  the  genuine 
capacity  before  sinking  down  to  his  natural  level; 
such  young  people  are  precocious,  and  frequently 
surprise  and  delight  their  parents  by  exhibitions  of 
superiority  that  soon  disappear.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  lower  the  species,  in  general,  the  earlier  its 
specimens  come  to  maturity.  Little  negroes  are 
extraordinarily  wise  at  four  years  and  dull  at  four- 
teen. Nervous  and  volatile  children  of  superficial 
parents  sometimes  present  an  appearance  of  youthful 
brilliancy  that  induces  high  expectations  of  their  fu- 
ture; but  they  seldom  fulfil  these  hopes.  Tallow 
sputters  more  than  wax,  but  wastes  sooner. 

One  should  be  very  fearful  of  encouraging  "  smart- 
ness "  in  a  child.  In  fact,  the  more  assurance  he 
exhibits  the  more  one  may  doubt  the  possession  of 
any  real  ability.  Precocity  is  often  but  the  rapid 
response  made  by  very  malleable  natures  to  unusual 
stimulus  of  circumstances.  An  ambitious  and  adroit 
parent,  wholly  intent  on  pushing  his  offspring  to  an 


298       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

exhibition  of  remarkable  feats  may  readily  have  a 
"  phenomenon  "  in  his  family ;  before  it  tumbles  down 
to  mediocrity  or  stupidity.  But  the  natural  develop- 
ment  of  an  intelligent  being  demands  time  as  an  es- 
sential element  of  normal  growth,  and  if  the  begin- 
ning is  encouraging  there  should  be  no  urging  of  ca- 
pacity. One  of  the  best  authorities  on  psychology 
of  the  will  states  that  we  should  not  absolutely  teach 
the  child  anything  except  in  response  to  his  curiosity ; 
that  we  should  be  guided  in  educational  methods  by 
his  pace.  With  some  modification  I  believe  this  to 
be  the  correct  theory:  if  the  surroundings  are  what 
they  should  be  the  child's  intelligence  will  be  the 
normal  guide  to  his  education ;  he  may  be  instructed 
at  the  rate  he  seems  best  able  to  proceed.  Scientists 
now  acknowledge  that  education  has  most  effect  on 
mediocre  minds.  It  can  do  a  great  deal  with  them, 
less  for  those  that  are  highly  endowed,  while  talented 
persons,  even  though  they  may  receive  all  the  usual 
courses  of  schooling,  usually  educate  themselves. 
They  gain  their  most  valuable  education  through  the 
exercise  of  their  strongest  faculty.  Work  is  their 
tutor  and  self-directing  energy  their  college. 

Parents  and  tutors  need  to  have  a  care  that  their 


TALENTED  CHILDREN  299 

efforts  to  be  helpful  to  their  children  do  not  inter- 
fere with  the  natural  development  of  their  faculties. 
Sometimes  such  an  interference  comes  about  through 
a  mistake  about  their  tastes  and  capacities,  but  of  tener 
because  a  parent  is  anxious  to  direct  the  career  of 
his  son  or  daughter  from  some  conventional  standard. 
But  no  preference  of  our  own  should  make  us  exert 
an  undue  influence  over  the  future  of  the  individual 
who  must  live  out  his  own  destiny  after  parents  have 
passed  away.  "  True  education,"  said  Guyot,  "  is 
disinterested.  It  rears  the  child  for  himself,  for  the 
world,  above  all,  for  humanity."  There  is  now  a 
broader  view  of  personal  liberty  in  the  choice  of  a 
life  pursuit  than  obtained  in  the  days  of  our  forebears. 
Puritan  ministers  dedicated  their  most  promising 
sons  to  the  work  they  considered  divine,  irrespective 
of  any  contrariness  on  the  part  of  the  "  chosen  ves- 
sel." A  departure  from  that  fixed  destiny  was  sor- 
rowfully disapproved.  One  of  my  relatives  tells  a 
story  of  how  his  father  —  a  notable  pillar  of  the 
church  —  rebuffed  the  efforts  of  a  visiting  cousin, 
who  was  a  commodore  in  our  navy,  to  advance  the  in-* 
terests  of  his  young  son.  "  Jim,"  he  observed,  "  I 
can  do  something  for  the  boy.  I'll  send  him  to  West 


300      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

Point."  "  Isaac,"  solemnly  returned  the  father,  "  I 
hope  to  see  him  on  the  walls  of  Zion,  preaching  sal- 
vation to  the  heathen."  Years  afterward  the  young 
man  enlisted  in  the  army.  He  would  better  have  had 
the  easier  start,  since  his  fate  was  so  fixed;  but  the 
father  could  not  think  so. 

We  should  study  the  individuality  of  our  child 
from  his  birth,  so  that  we  may  avoid  a  wasteful  em- 
ployment of  his  energies  in  pursuits  that  are  alien 
to  his  disposition  and  foreign  to  his  needs.  The  par- 
ticular development  of  any  special  faculty  should 
always  rest  upon  the  basis  of  broad  general  culture, 
and  even  where  there  are  unmistakable  signs  of  talent 
this  should  not  be  dispensed  with.  The  mother 
ought  to  be  zealous  in  affording  to  her  child  every 
opportunity  for  broad  culture;  for  the  tendency  of  the 
day  is  toward  specializing,  and  unless  we  gain  in  our 
earlier  days  a  good  general  knowledge  of  literature 
and  science  the  probability  is  that  there  will  never  be 
time  for  it  afterwards.  However,  the  child  of  marked 
ability  not  seldom  exhibits  extreme  restlessness  under 
any  kind  of  instruction  that  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  subject  he  prefers,  and  we  must  not  keep  him  too 
closely  to  the  beaten  track.  Pegasus  cannot  be  har- 


TALENTED  CHILDREN"  301 

nessed  to  a  plow,  but  will  insist  on  flying,  even 
if  he  provokes  scandal  by  his  escapades.  We  may 
hold  out  to  original  young  persons  as  inducements  to 
the  fulfilling  of  distasteful  tasks,  the  incentive  of  a 
privilege  of  afterward  devoting  themselves  to  what 
they  like  better. 

There  is  scarcely  anything  in  which  we  have  so 
much  need  of  caution  as  in  the  matter  of  influencing 
our  child's  activity.  Indeed,  with  children  who  are 
able  and  clever  advice  and  influence  must  be  indirect 
rather  than  personal.  Put  opportunities  in  their  way 
and  then  leave  them  alone.  In  order  to  test  their 
talent  and  develop  their  power  of  persistency  it  is 
well  to  interpose  slight  obstacles  in  their  path  once  in 
awhile.  Tenacity  of  purpose  is  the  bed-rock  of  suc^ 
cess  in  any  career,  and  we  want  to  find  out  whether 
our  child  has  it.  If  he  returns  again  and  again  to 
a  thing  from  which  he  has  been  distracted  and  pa- 
tiently conquers  difficulties  we  may  be  sure  that 
he  is  made  of  the  right  stuff.  It  augurs  well  for 
the  destiny  of  a  child  if  he  dries  his  tears  after  a 
mishap  and  sets  to  work  to  repair  the  disaster. 
When  he  grows-  up  and  fronts  the  greater  failures  of 
life  he  will  not  be  one  of  those  who  are  continually 


302      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

calling  out  upon  their  "  bad  luck "  instead  of  at- 
tempting to  mend  it. 

The  one  unmistakable  sign  of  superior  ability  is 
concentration.  "  Concentration,"  said  Emerson,  "  is 
the  secret  of  success ;  in  art,  in  war,  and  in  fact,  in 
all  the  affairs  of  human  life."  It  exhibits  itself  so 
early  that  we  may  detect  signs  of  it  in  the  youngest  in- 
fant. The  baby  who  grasps  your  finger  in  a  tentative, 
inquiring  manner  and  holds  it  fast  with  a  gradually 
increasing  pressure,  while  his  eyes  regard  you 
steadily,  is  an  embryo  personage  to  be  some  day 
reckoned  with.  When,  later  on,  he  sets  his  little 
heart  on  a  certain  toy  and  is  not  to  be  weaned  from 
his  preference  by  the  display  of  other  attractive  ob- 
jects ;  when  he  shows  precocity  in  realizing  differences 
and  manifests  both  likings  and  dislikes  strongly,  re- 
joice over  this  little  one,  for  he  doubtless  possesses 
some  of  that  singleness  of  purpose  which  is  the  essence 
of  all  genius. 

Between  genius  and  talent  there  is  a  great  gulf. 
Genius  is  a  fusion  of  the  emotional  and  intellectual 
natures  which  gives  to  ability  the  heat  of  a  passion ; 
the  object  of  its  preference  is  loved  like  a  mistress, 
sought  through  the  world,  suffered  for,  died  for,  with 


TALENTED  CHILDREN  303 

enthusiasm,  with  joy.  The  work  itself  is  the  absorb- 
ing idea,  not  the  end  and  aim,  and  all  other  con- 
siderations are  lost  sight  of  while  the  way  is  torn 
through  incredible  obstacles.  Genius  disdains  any 
other  mode  of  self-development  than  its  "  idea  " ;  be- 
ing wholly  one-sided  and  just  a  little  mad. 

The  history  of  genius  is  one  of  struggle  against 
adversities  and  we  should  not  be  sorry  that  there  is 
slight  probability  of  our  finding  a  real  genius  among 
our  children.  Galton  observes  that  there  have  never 
been  more  than  four  hundred  great  geniuses ;  but  he 
leaves  out  Americans.  Assuredly,  however,  genius 
is  not  a  gift  to  be  craved,  although  just  a  touch  of  it 
lends  romance  to  life.  Where  it  exists  in  supreme 
degree  it  subjects  its  owner  to  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tressing sufferings ;  where  it  is  present  even  to  a  high 
degree,  but  is  accompanied  by  limitations  and  a  tem- 
perament that  hinders  and  aborts  its  development, 
we  have  a  spectacle  of  frailty  so  disheartening  as  to 
make  us  turn  with  relief  to  more  robust  and  practical 
specimens  of  humanity. 

One  of  the  happy  features  of  talent  is  that  it  is 
practical.  More  of  the  head  than  of  the  heart,  it 
prudently  looks  to  the  results  of  action  as  it  is  not 


304      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

dominated  by  an  instinct  that  defies  reason.  A  young 
person  who  has  talent  and  no  trace  of  genius  is  likely 
to  have  a  successful  career  in  any  pursuit  he  chooses 
to  follow  if  he  stands  to  his  choice  and  with  all  his 
mind  and  strength  wills  to  succeed,  undaunted  by 
obstacles. 

Strength  of  will  is  inseparable  from  talent,  and  is 
one  of  its  earliest  indications.  A  vacillating,  very 
tractable  child  may  grow  into  a  lovely  character,  but 
scarcely  a  great  one.  Do  not  let  us  confound  strength 
of  will  with  wilfulness;  they  are  entirely  different. 
The  one  is  the  outcome  of  a  distinct  purpose  conceived 
in  the  person's  own  mind  and  adhered  to  in  obedience 
to  some  inward  behest  that  speaks  louder  than  authori~ 
ties ;  the  other  is  revolt  against  restraints  to  impulses 
or  whims.  When  a  child  shows  determination  to  have 
or  to  do  a  certain  thing,  let  us  find  out  the  mainspring 
of  his  conduct ;  whether,  in  the  old-fashioned  phrase, 
he  has  "  a  strong  will  or  a  great  won't."  In  the  one 
case  he  needs  only  guidance,  in  the  other  more 
careful,  anxious  training.  I  rejoice  in  a  child  who 
shows  early  a  strong  bent  for  something;  who  is 
resolved  to  do  that  particular  thing  even  if  he  is  torn 
away  from  it  and  punished.  It  is  a  good  dog  who  re- 


TALENTED  CHILDKEN  305 

turns  to  the  scent,  after  being  punished  for  his  ob- 
stinacy. Often  he  proves  to  be  in  the  right  and  his 
master  in  the  wrong.  There  are  false  scents,  but 
should  we  for  that  reason  make  a  child  distrust  his 
own  instinct  ? 

Zeal  in  work  is  another  sign  of  real  ability.  But  by 
zeal,  I  do  not  mean  necessarily,  the  plodding  habit. 
I  mean  the  innate  interest  in  effort  that  impels  one 
to  go  on  after  the  required  amount  has  been  finished. 
There  is  a  nature  that  makes  requirements  of  itself, 
higher  than  any  that  outsiders  would  dare  suggest. 
"  I  have  a  standard,"  averred  Flaubert,  "  above  other 
standards.  I  seek  not  so  much  to  please  the  world 
as  to  satisfy  myself."  The  child  who  plays  heartily 
when  he  plays  and  works  with  all  his  might  at  what- 
ever he  imdertakes  has  no  need  of  persuasions  to  be 
industrious  or  commands  to  make  progress.  All  his 
parents  should  do  is  to  keep  careful  oversight  of  him 
and  advise  him  when  he  is  puzzled.  A  tendency  to 
be  desultory,  such  as  is  often  exhibited  by  children 
before  they  know  themselves,  should  be  gently  checked 
and  steadiness  encouraged.  Teach  the  little  one  to 
finish  what  he  has  begun  if  it  is  worth  finishing ;  but 
as  many  infantile  pursuits  are  trivial  enough  to  weary 


306      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

their  young  projectors  it  is  injudicious  to  make  them 
continue  what  they  have  grown  tired  of  during  the 
process  of  creation. 

Every  man  or  woman  who  has  amounted  to  much 
has  been  distinguished  by  the  power  of  working  hard ; 
and  usually  this  determination  has  betrayed  itself 
very  early  in  life.  Genius  alternates  periods  of 
frantic  effort  with  spells  of  idleness  in  which  spent 
forces  recover  tone.  But  talent  proceeds  more 
steadily  and  smoothly.  Its  rests  are  regular  and  its 
work  more  methodical.  Without  method  it  is  lost, 
and  I  believe  that  there  is  no  more  certain  sign  of 
ability  in  a  child  than  an  innate  tendency  to  methodize 
his  labors  and  the  disposal  of  his  time.  Some  girls 
and  boys  fret  at  the  arrangement  parents  or  teachers 
make  of  their  hours,  sensible  that  they  need  some  other 
method,  but  scarcely  having  the  logic  to  explain 
their  intuitions.  Wherever  there  is  a  persistent  dis- 
content with  regulations  imposed  by  authorities  I 
think  it  would  be  a  wiser  plan  to  let  the  young  person 
re-arrange  his  time  to  suit  his  own  supposed  needs. 
If  the  young  daughter  wants  to  study  before  day- 
break and  repose  herself  later  on,  there  may  "  be  a 


TALENTED  CHILDREN  307 

reason,"  as  the  slang  of  the  hour  runs.  Let  her  ex- 
periment a  little  with  herself.  And  if  the  boy  insists 
upon  learning  his  lessons  at  midnight,  after  the  family 
has  retired,  saying  that  his  mind  is  brighter  then, 
absolute  prohibition  should  have  a  better  foundation 
than  the  extra  gas-bill.  After  physiology  has  given 
its  enlightenment  he  may  change  his  mind.  If  not, 
then  he  really  does  know  his  own  nature  better  than 
his  guardians. 

But  in  order  to  bring  to  fruition  the  beautiful  germ 
of  talent  regular  habits  should  be  inculcated  in  the 
plastic  days  of  early  childhood.  The  little  one  should 
be  taught  not  only  to  have  a  particular  place  for  his 
belongings,  but  a  particular  time  for  every  special 
duty.  When  the  time  has  once  been  chosen  it  should 
not  be  lightly  changed.  Professor  William  James 
had  something  to  say  upon  this  point  which  is  marked 
by  great  wisdom :  "  The  great  point  in  all  education 
is  to  make  automatic  and  habitual,  as  early  as  possi- 
ble, as  many  useful  actions  as  we  can,  and  to  avoid 
growing  into  ways  that  are  likely  to  be  disadvan- 
tageous to  us  as  we  should  guard  against  the  plague. 
The  more  details  of  our  daily  work  we  can  hand  over 


308       THE  MOTHEK  IN  EDUCATION 

to  the  infallible  and  effortless  custody  of  automatism 
the  more  the  higher  processes  of  mind  will  be  set  free 
for  its  own  proper  work." 

We  may  set  this  rational  advice  off  against  the 
airy  theory  of  Rousseau  that  "  the  child  should  form 
no  habits."  I  believe  that  the  more  good  habits,  espe- 
cially relating  to  his  mental  activities,  a  child  can 
form,  the  better  for  his  progress.  "  The  habit  became 
a  need  with  me,"  remarked  the  brilliant  but  self-willed 
George  Sand,  referring  to  her  self-imposed  discipline 
in  regard  to  fixing  hours  of  work;  "  and  the  need  be^ 
came  a  faculty." 

This  is  something  that  ought  to  be  writ  large,  in 
letters  of  light :  that  the  fixed  habit  of  certain  occupa- 
tions at  certain  hours  each  day  confers  a  positive 
ability  to  pursue  the  work  undertaken.  The  mind 
looks  for  its  work  as  the  body  for  food  and  digests 
what  is  given  it.  Every  mortal  must  eventually  find 
out  for  himself  what  is  the  best  system,  so  I  should  al- 
low even  a  young  child  a  good  deal  of  liberty,  if  it 
shows  preference.  Let  it  experiment  with  itself  and 
then  the  defects  of  any  system  that  is  poor  will  be 
found  out  and  another  can  be  arranged  that  is  better. 

No  other  discipline  is  so  good  for  any  one  as  the 


TALENTED  CHILDKEN  309 

constant  measuring  of  oneself  against  a  high  standard. 
The  mother's  part  is  to  place  before  her  child's  eyes 
beautiful  ideals;  then  leave  him  to  Nature.  If  she 
has  succeeded  in  teaching  him  to  admire  truly  worthy 
things  she  has  educated  him  as  well  as  she  can.  Our 
ideals  in  early  life  become  our  principles  later  on. 

To  have  bright,  talented  children  is  the  laudable 
wish  of  every  father  and  mother.  But  let  us  recollect 
that  while  talent  promises  it  is  character  that  fulfils. 
Any  talent  is  worthless  that  has  not  its  roots  deep  in 
integrity.  "  A  little  integrity,"  said  the  Sage  of  Con- 
cord, "  is  worth  any  career !"  Before  we  build  upon 
our  child's  ability  let  us  be  sure  he  has  in  him  the 
strength  to  be  true  and  the  courage  to  hold  fast  to 
the  truth.  The  honest  child  is  the  strong  child,  for 
he  is  capable  of  seeing  things  as  they  are,  of  describing 
them  as  he  sees  them,  and  of  rightly  judging  their 
values. 


CHAPTEE    XX 

ESTHETIC  EDUCATION 

"  The  one  true  fountain  of  beauty  is  feeling.  Feeling  re- 
veals to  us  true  ideas." —  SCHLEGEL.. 

LOVE  of  beauty  is  a  different  thing  from  love 
of  the  beautiful.     The  first  is  so  habitual 
in  man  as  to  have  become  almost  an  instinct, 
but  the  latter  must  be  continually  developed  in  each 
generation  by  proper  culture.     No  item  of  education 
is  more  important ;  no  one  more  neglected.     That  par- 
ents have  small  sympathy  with  this  branch  of  a  prac- 
tical   education    shows   how    far   we    all    are    from 
recognizing  the  intimate  relation  of  art  to  morals  and 
business. 

Were  it  not  for  the  sense  of  the  beautiful  in  man 
we  should  have  no  buildings,  no  factories,  no  ma- 
chinery, no  trades.  We  should  be  without  enthusiasm 
or  ideals.  All  our  intellectual  energy  originates  in 

the  instinctive  choice  of  the  thing  best  suited  to  our 

310 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  311 

own  preservation,  and  through  the  habit  of  selecting 
what  is  congenial  to  us  taste  comes  into  being.  What 
then,  is  taste  but  an  enlarging  of  our  instinct  for 
life  and  happiness  ?  "  Much  of  our  happiness,"  elo- 
quently says  Edward  Griggs,  in  his  book  "  The 
Philosophy  of  Art,"  is  in  appreciation ;  imagine  life 
denuded  of  it;  how  intolerably  barren  our  existence 
would  be !  " 

How  foolish  it  is  then,  to  neglect  the  training  of 
a  faculty  that  controls  our  thoughts  and  guides  all  the 
acts  of  our  lives.  "  It  is  a  mere  matter  of  taste,"  we 
say  lightly  to  the  person  who  differs  from  us  in  some 
matter  of  conduct,  politics  or  religion;  as  if  taste 
were  a  trifle,  and  not  the  unfailing  indicator  of  the 
whole  character. 

All  our  judgments  in  affairs  and  in  morals  are 
founded  upon  an  idea  of  relative  values,  and  we  never 
get  beyond  choosing  the  thing  that  makes  appeal  to 
our  permanent  sense  of  fitness ;  that  is,  to  our  strongest 
feeling.  Every  one  reaches  out  after  what  attracts 
him ;  he  sees  good  in  it  and  in  nothing  else.  But  the 
feelings  can  be  educated,  so  that  mere  glitter  shall 
not  be  taken  for  true  gold,  and  liking  may  be  trained 
to  wait  upon  understanding.  It  is  through  education 


312       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

of  our  preferences  that  all  progress  is  made.  The  un- 
taught child  naturally  chooses  the  thing  that  has  a 
superficial  attraction;  his  senses  lead  him  toward 
beauty,  and  not  toward  the  beautiful.  Many  per- 
sons remain  children  all  their  lives  in  their  inability 
to  perceive  qualities  which  only  reveal  themselves  to 
careful  seekers.  A  true  feeling  for  beauty,  an  in- 
stinctive preference  for  the  pure  and  lovely  over  that 
which  is  merely  satisfying  to  the  casual  glance,  is  a 
talisman  in  a  labyrinth  of  falsehood.  There  are 
people  with  such  nice  perceptions  that  they  cannot 
be  deceived  even  about  art  values  respecting  which 
they  have  received  no  instruction;  their  taste  revolts 
against  what  is  gaudy  as  certainly  as  it  appreciates 
what  is  delicate  and  refined.  But  they  are  in  the 
small  minority.  Most  of  us  go  astray  easily  in  this 
bewildering  world  and  need  standards  to  guide  us 
aright.  It  is  therefore,  our  duty  to  develop  in  the 
child-soul  not  only  a  love  of  the  good  and  beautiful  but 
an  enthusiastic  purpose  to  look  for  it  everywhere  and 
not  to  be  content  with  anything  that  does  not  satisfy 
his  highest  demands. 

What  is  the  essential  element  of  the  beautiful  ? 
Harmony  between  outward  appearance  and  inward 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  313 

purpose.  Nothing  that  has  something  patched  on  by 
way  of  ornament,  that  can  be  pruned  without  de- 
stroying its  symmetry,  that  can  be  altered  with  benefit 
to  its  looks  is  really  beautiful.  There  are  few  perfect 
objects  in  Nature,  almost  none  in  the  world  of  art; 
but  there  are  millions  everywhere  about  us  that  have 
the  spirit  of  beauty  to  such  an  extent  that  our  minds 
and  hearts  are  not  only  satisfied  but  exalted  by  con- 
templation of  them.  One  can  contemplate  forever  a 
single  oak  tree,  laden  with  its  rich,  dark  leaves  and 
baby  acorns,  without  exhausting  its  possibilities  for 
gratification.  The  music  of  a  mountain  streamlet, 
winding  downward  through  rocky  crevices  has  enough 
melody  in  it  to  set  one  dreaming  endlessly.  What 
nature  can  gaze  at  streaks  of  forked  lightning  racing 
through  pitch-black  clouds  and  not  feel  awe-struck  by 
suggestions  of  deeper,  wilder  harmonies  in  Nature 
than  any  the  mechanical  works  of  man  afford  ? 

In  natural  phenomena  the  ignorant  find  only  sub- 
jects for  superstitious  fear ;  in  the  most  splendid  mani- 
festations of  harmonies  in  color  and  shapes,  merely 
means  of  gratifying  some  practical  need.  An  exacer- 
bated old  maid  whose  story  was  related  by  Mrs.  Stowe, 
awoke  one  autumn  morning  and  saw  in  the  sky  the 


314      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

pale  moon  of  dawn  attended  by  its  mysterious  star, 
then  swiftly  overwhelmed  by  the  wonderful  tide  of 
purple  and  rose  that  Aurora  throws  before  her  arriv- 
ing car,  and  all  she  could  find  to  say  was  — "  It's  a 
good  day  to  kill  the  hog !" 

I  dare  not  think  how  much  training  in  childhood 
such  a  nature  would  have  required  before  it  might 
have  been  rendered  susceptible  to  the  meaning  of 
beauty  in  the  world.  But  something  might  have  been 
done,  perhaps.  With  the  average  child  much  may 
be  accomplished  to  increase  the  possibilities  of  hap- 
piness and  enlarge  the  whole  character  to  an  appre- 
ciation of  all  the  sources  of  harmony  and  truth. 

I  realize  the  inconveniences  that  attend  such  a 
training.  When  we  make  our  child  attentive  to  de- 
tails, sharpen  his  perceptions  so  that  he  analyzes  his 
enjoyments  and  compares  all  objects  with  the  per- 
fect standard  we  have  given  him,  then  we  shall  find 
it  hard  to  live  up  to  the  ideals  we  have  encouraged  him 
to  maintain.  He  may  find  the  things  we  are  com- 
pelled to  support  about  us  insupportable  to  his  ultra- 
refined  sensibilities ;  he  may  become  hyper-critical  of 
appearances,  before  he  gets  beyond  the  stage  of  fault- 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  315 

finding  into  that  of  larger  tolerance.  But  it  is  a 
necessary  ante-chamber  to  the  realm  of  peace,  this  of 
carping  at  what  is  distasteful.  There  are  two  great 
opposing  laws  before  which  all  must  bow ;  possibility 
and  actuality.  We  stand  between  what  we  want  and 
what  we  can  have  and  either  lament  or  smile,  accord- 
ing to  our  pluck.  It  seems  to  me  the  right  thing  to 
teach  the  child  that  "  noble  discontent "  with  the 
makeshifts  of  life  which  does  not  consist  in  disdain- 
ing, but  in  accepting  them  with  eyes  open  to  their 
defects  but  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  getting 
along  with  them  until  he  can  by  his  own  efforts  at- 
tain to  something  better. 

"  It  is  but  a  chromo,  my  dear,  and  the  collection 
of  paintings  in  the  Morgan  gallery  are  wonders.  But 
there  is  a  true  spirit  in  this  little  thing,  do  you  not 
see  its  meaning  ?  Some  day,  when  you  have  made  a 
good  deal  of  money  and  can  have  what  you  love  best 
perhaps  you  may  buy  a  wonderful  picture.  Mean- 
while, see  how  much  beauty  you  can  discover  in 
this  poor  little  thing  which  is  the  best  we  have." 
No  true-hearted  child  will  fail  to  respond  nobly  to 
such  appeal  to  his  right  instincts;  he  will  preserve 


316       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

the  larger  out-look  his  educated  tastes  give  him,  but 
will  appreciate  too,  the  little  thing  that  helps  to  make 
home  beautiful. 

With  the  young  good  and  beautiful  are  convertible 
terms.  Aristotle  declared  that  "  Youth  loves  beauti- 
ful rather  than  useful  conduct,"  and  despite  the  latest 
revelations  of  philanthropists  who  labor  in  the  big 
American  cities  to  train  children,  as  to  their  extraordi- 
nary devotion  to  what  is  altogether  utilitarian,  I  be- 
lieve that  instinctively,  youth  does  appreciate  the 
essence  of  the  good  in  the  beautiful.  It  is  pleased 
with  fair  appearances  and  cannot  divorce  them  from 
what  satisfies  moral  ideas.  The  small  child  always 
finds  its  mother's  face  lovely  when  she  is  good  to 
him ;  later  on,  he  deifies  his  favorites  everywhere,  not 
believing  faultiness  possible.  Leave  him  his  illu~ 
sions!  Yet  they  are  not  inconsistent  with  develop- 
ment of  that  artistic  conception  of  worth  which  meas- 
ures and  scrutinizes,  while  it  admires.  If  one  knows 
how  to  look  for  truth  he  must  with  equal  precision 
discern  falsehood,  even  if  found  at  home.  But  so 
long  as  there  is  no  attempt  made  to  deceive,  so  long 
as  there  is  frankness,  neither  physical  nor  mental 
asymmetry  will  repel  even  the  critical  taste  of  the 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  317 

well-balanced  child.  Nothing  but  a  moral  disorder 
can  make  the  beloved  parent  un-beautiful. 

By  giving  our  children  right  education  we  impose 
a  rigid  obligation  on  ourselves  to  walk  along  the  same 
path  we  point  out  for  them,  or  else  we  incur  the 
penalty  of  losing  their  esteem.  "  You  don't  do  it," 
the  young  person  will  say  pointedly,  when  admonished 
on  the  virtues  of  moderation  and  simplicity.  Youth, 
severe  and  uncompromising,  is  moved  by  a  strong 
impetus,  and  from  young  persons  trained  to  keen 
observation  we  must  expect  some  startling  comments 
now  and  then.  "  A  chiel's  among  ye  takin'  notes," 
and  a  bluff,  free  tone  marks  that  person  young  or  old, 
who  believes  that  his  own  opinion  is  in  accord  with 
right  standards.  The  critical  faculty  is  the  basis  and 
accompaniment  of  sound  judgment.  Without  it  a 
person  may  be  temporarily  an  agreeable  companion, 
but  he  will  not  be  a  profitable  one  and  his  individual 
life  will  be  a  failure.  For  fixity  of  purpose  is  essen- 
tial to  success,  and  the  purpose  which  is  not  chosen 
deliberately,  wisely,  with  a  full  realization  of  its 
ultimate  rewards,  is  merely  obstinate  persistence  in 
a  weak,  shallow  fancy. 

It  is  then,  right  and  necessary  for  us  to  develop  the 


318      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

critical  faculty  in  our  children.  Close,  careful  per- 
ception is  the  beginning.  We  may  appeal  to  his 
preference  about  the  colors  he  sees  in  flowers,  in 
all  natural  objects,  then  in  such  art  objects  as  in- 
terest him  in  his  home.  Show  him  symmetrical 
forms  and  bid  him  compare  these  with  others  that 
lack  symmetry.  Contrast  the  garish  and  gaudy  with 
the  lovely  and  refined  in  color  schemes,  and  get  his 
instinctive  ideas.  Then,  induce  him  to  give  his  rea- 
sons. State  that  a  mere  whimsical  "  I  like  it  be- 
cause I  do,"  is  a  silly  foundation  for  a  preference, 
and  that  a  reasonable  person  should  be  able  to  recog- 
nize his  own  reasons.  Gradually,  he  will  advance 
beyond  that  stage  when  coarse  masses  of  color  and 
the  big  and  massive  are  more  attractive  than  the  deli- 
cate and  dainty.  People  of  crude  taste  are  seduced 
by  what  is  overwhelming;  they  like  the  sensation  of 
being  stunned  by  loud  music  and  whirling  motions, 
knowing  little  of  pleasure  beyond  the  sense  impres- 
sion of  delicious  coma.  We  do  a  great  deal  if  we  can 
rescue  our  child  early,  from  the  chance  of  his  being 
made  to  come  under  such  demoralizing  influences  as 
may  be  exerted  over  him  by  the  brutal  forces  that 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  319 

wait  about  us  everywhere,  when  we  go  out  from  the 
seclusion  of  home  into  crowds. 

It  would  scarcely  be  worth  while  to  spend  time 
on  the  training  of  the  sense  of  the  beautiful  in  chil- 
dren if  it  were  not  inseparable  from  an  education 
of  the  moral  sense.  That  child  who  learns  to  ap- 
preciate beauty,  to  criticise  all  departures  from  it,  in 
Nature,  in  art  and  in  conduct,  will  not  fall  an  easy 
victim  to  any  debasing  temptation.  His  taste  is  his 
bulwark.  Esthetic  education  consists  in  training  the 
mind  to  perceive  and  the  heart  to  feel,  not  only  the 
greatest  amount  of  beauty  that  resides  in  any  object 
or  condition,  but  the  greatest  amount  of  moral  sym- 
metry ;  which  is  truth. 

We  should  distinguish  between  sentiment  for  what 
is  beautiful,  and  a  real  appreciation  of  it.  The  one 
is  superficial,  the  other  discriminating.  Yet,  there 
is  a  possibility  of  general  appreciation  without  knowl- 
edge. Many  persons  whom  opportunity  has  never 
visited,  have  an  almost  passionate  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful.  But  we  find  that  they  usually  have  the 
moral  nature  very  highly  developed.  They  are  capa- 
ble of  love;  in  its  highest,  purest  form.  I  wonder 


320       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

whether  any  nature  can  love  deeply  and  consistently 
that  has  not  a  very  strong  instinct  for  the  beautiful ; 
as  opposed  to  that  superficial  liking  for  the  merely 
pretty,  which  I  called  before,  beauty-love,  and  less 
worthy  than  love  of  the  beautiful  ?  Into  the  purest 
taste  there  enters  an  austere  conception  of  the  pure 
and  true.  It  cannot  tolerate  a  lie. 

General  impressions  naturally  come  before  dis- 
criminating sensations.  Young  persons  fall  into  rap- 
tures with  what  they  like,  because  they  are  not  yet 
trained  to  recognize  details  and  they  mistake  flights 
of  imagination  for  artistic  enjoyment.  Without  the 
development  that  comes  from  training  in  observation 
and  in  comparison  they  must  always  remain  insensi- 
ble to  the  finer  manifestations  of  beauty.  Esthetics, 
as  a  branch  of  education,  has  three  notable  stages, 
corresponding  to  the  natural  progression  of  our  minds 
from  the  simple  to  the  complex;  from  what  appeals 
to  a  single  sense,  as  the  eye  or  the  ear,  to  what  arouses 
and  satisfies  all  the  impulses  of  our  emotional  nature. 

First  comes  love  of  beauty  of  material,  making  ap- 
peal to  us  as  rich  and  dazzling  color;  afterward,  as 
harmoniously  blended  tints  and  symphonies.  A 
child's  earliest  feeling  for  beauty  is  admiration  for 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  321 

vividly  colored  objects,  and  we  must  minister  long 
and  wisely  to  this  yearning  before  leading  him  on  to 
the  next  step  —  which  came  to  our  rude  fore-fathers 
of  the  forest  —  appreciation  of  form.  Much  observa- 
tion of  Nature  is  necessary  before  there  comes  recog- 
nition of  symmetry,  of  appropriate  arrangement. 
And  for  a  really  intelligent,  sympathetic  comprehen- 
sion of  beauty  of  form  I  believe  a  logical  mind  is 
necessary  as  well  as  good  training.  Some  degree  of 
understanding  of  it  may  be  developed  in  almost 
every  one.  The  child  who  revels  in  a  wild  waste  of 
confusion  may  be  taught  to  "  bring  order  out  of 
chaos  "  by  adjusting  his  toys  into  some  pleasing  com- 
bination, for  instance,  and  by  arranging  the  furniture 
of  a  room.  If  his  arrangements  are  in  the  highest 
degree  eccentric,  it  is  only  what  can  be  expected  at 
first.  By  practice  he  will  come  to  an  appreciation 
of  symmetry  in  arrangement.  And  that  is  a  great 
gain. 

The  word  "  artistic  "  has  been  so  misapplied  that 
most  people  suppose  that  it  means  something  rather 
disorderly  and  hap-hazard.  How  often  literature 
gives  us  the  prim,  precise  maiden  aunt,  with  her  nar- 
row, intense  love  of  exact  outline,  and  the  art-loving 


322      THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

niece  all  on  fire  with  raptures  over  "  color  har- 
monies "  and  contempt  for  everything  that  is  not  pic- 
turesque! Let  us  give  our  sympathy  however,  to 
the  derided  aunt.  Craze  for  color  is  a  lower  degree 
of  the  sense  of  beauty  than  appreciation  of  sym- 
metrical arrangement.  Sculpture  is  a  finer  achieve- 
ment of  the  intellect  than  painting.  Savages  and 
ignorant  children  can  take  pleasure  in  color  display, 
but  only  an  educated  mind  is  moved  through  effects 
of  form. 

Exaggeration  sways  masses,  so  the  appearance  of 
an  artistic  sensibility  usually  carries  more  weight 
with  it  than  the  real  power,  for  it  rants  and  poses 
and  makes  the  world  gape.  So  it  comes  to  pass  that 
the  tuppenny  rhymer  and  the  bold  dauber  in  color  are 
more  valued  than  the  man  of  magnificent  scientific 
imagination,  working  out  results  that  will  influence 
millions,  while  he  is  by  his  age  forgot. 

Only  sound  training  in  esthetics,  which  implies  a 
sense  of  true  values,  can  lead  us  to  the  highest  de- 
gree of  enlightenment.  The  true  artist,  though  he 
may  at  times  indulge  in  reverie,  is  not  a  dreamer, 
but  a  keen,  accurate  observer.  Patient  study  of  the 
realities  in  Nature  is  the  basis  of  all  worthy  art 


ESTHETIC  EDUCATION  323 

Through  this  we  arrive  at  the  third  and  highest  de- 
gree of  attainment  of  the  sense  of  beauty  —  appre- 
ciation of  associated  values,  of  degrees  of  perfection. 
To  lead  our  child  onward  toward  this  high  goal 
we  must  train  his  moral  nature  patiently,  wisely. 
We  must  teach  him  to  be  keenly  observant  and  ac- 
curate in  representation;  to  be  true  and  simple;  to 
love  virtue,  for  the  good  and  the  beautiful  are  one. 
Every  one  cannot  learn  the  gospel  of  beauty  in  the 
same  way.  Different  temperaments  are  alive  to  dif- 
ferent effects.  One  child  will  find  the  delight  of  his 
life  in  music;  another  in  color  combinations;  more 
rarely  there  is  one  who  shows  preference  for  form 
and  expression  and  is  sensitive  to  the  beautiful  as 
exhibited  in  architecture  and  in  those  highest  symbols 
of  thought  —  words.  The  wise  parent  will  minister 
to  each  child  according  to  its  deep,  individual  need. 


CHAPTEE  XXI 

CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY 

"  Breadth  and  nutrition  are  to  be  constant  factors  in  our 
ideal  course  of  study.  Enrichment  in  its  true  sense  does  not 
come  by  adding  more  formal  studies  anywhere,  but  by  sup- 
plying a  more  full  and  complete  social  life  in  the  home  and 
in  the  school.  Any  studies  which  minister  to  this  point  are 
legitimate." —  BUTTON. 

ONE  of  the  most  marked  differences  between 
the  training  of  children  in  the  Old  World 
and  in  our  country  is  in  the  preparation 
given  for  social  life.     Over  there  it  is  a  distinct  aim  of 
education  to  enable  a  young  person  to  enter  the  world 
well;  to  bear  his  part  wisely  and  gracefully  among 
others;  to  understand  what  is  demanded  by  his  posi- 
tion and  pay  due  consideration  to  those  with  whom  he 
is  brought  in  contact,  according  to  the  measure  of  his 
social  importance. 

Such  a  training  is  necessarily  regulated  by  a  per- 
vading recognition  of  caste.  The  infant  peasant  is 

324 


CHILDREN"  IN  SOCIETY  325 

imbued  with  the  sense  of  deference ;  the  young  noble- 
man with  that  of  dignity.  Each  punctiliously  per- 
forms his  part.  The  well  reared  child  of  the  higher 
class  early  learns  to  control  his  temper,  because  any 
display  of  ill-humor  is  "  bad  form  " ;  to  be  courteous 
because  courtesy  is  a  bulwark  against  rudeness  from 
his  inferiors  and  a  passport  among  his  equals. 
While  the  child  of  humbler  class  is  obliged  to  prac- 
tise the  self-restraint  as  a  means  of  winning  favor 
and  "  getting  on."  Each  grows  up  with  a  shrewd 
apprehension  of  the  importance  of  forming  desirable 
connections,  and  turning  to  advantage  the  chances 
of  acquaintanceship.  The  boy  is  sent  to  school  forti- 
fied with  certain  precepts  against  "  low  associations  " 
and  in  favor  of  cultivating  those  likely  to  further  his 
interests  in  life.  The  girl  acquires  almost  from  in- 
fancy, notions  of  "  caste." 

There  is  no  denying  that  such  systematic  training 
in  conduct  with  a  continual  view  to  self-interest  has 
a  tendency  to  develop  what  we  call  flunkeyism.  In 
any  nature  in  which  selfishness  and  meanness  over- 
rule the  impulses  of  the  heart,  there  is  a  ready  made 
snob,  only  needing  occasion  to  manifest  the  strong 
bias  of  his  character.  It  is  true  that  any  system 


326      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

which  exhibits  the  differences  that  incontestably  exist 
between  the  rank  and  file  of  society  seems  to  offer 
a  sort  of  sanction  to  a  snobbish  estimate  of  people. 
But  is  it  by  any  means  certain  that  if  these  differ- 
ences are  not  openly  declared  they  will  not  be  found 
out  anyway  ?  If  we  strive  to  rear  our  child  in  igno- 
rance of  all  class  distinctions,  will  he  continue  blind 
to  them  when,  after  years  have  passed,  he  comes  to 
observe  the  usages  of  the  world  ? 

There  was  a  certain  young  man  of  high  connections 
and  undoubtedly  "  blue  "  blood,  who  in  the  pioneer 
days  of  our  western  civilization,  threw  away  all  his 
opportunities,  to  become  a  missionary  among  the 
Nebraska  Indians.  Marrying  a  southern  heiress 
whose  possessions  consisted  mainly  of  slaves,  he  re- 
fused to  "  own "  them,  and  let  them  all  drift  off, 
wherever  they  chose  to  go.  He  reared  his  six  chil- 
dren in  ignorance  of  their  relationship  with  notable 
personages  in  England  and  in  the  States,  curtly  telling 
them,  in  response  to  any  questions,  that  "  our  family 
is  like  a  potato,  the  best  part  is  under  ground."  But 
despite  the  most  rigorous  repression  of  instincts  of 
family  pride  those  same  boys  and  girls  grew  to 
maturity  burning  with  desire  to  find  out  all  they 


CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY  327 

could  about  the  representatives  of  a  name  often  ap- 
pearing in  their  histories.  Ultimately,  they  discov- 
ered their  claims  to  belong  to  certain  distinguished 
societies,  to  which  their  associates  belonged,  and  made 
it  the  business  of  years  to  hunt  up  the  records  that 
saintly  minister  had  taken  pains  to  hide.  Every  item 
that  was  encouraging  to  their  desire  for  social  eleva- 
tion was  hailed  with  enthusiasm ;  valuable  energy  and 
time  were  consumed  in  research  that  should  have 
been  needless,  and  more  thought  was  bestowed  on  a 
comparatively  trivial  matter  than  would  ever  have 
been,  but  for  the  mistaken  efforts  of  the  father 
to  repress  natural  and  irrepressible  instincts  of 
family  dignity. 

"  Noblesse  oblige."  The  heritage  of  intellectual 
elevation  that  has  been  hardly  earned  by  some  worthy 
ancestor  should  not  be  ruthlessly  torn  to  shreds  when 
he  dies,  but  pass  down  the  ages.  Qualities  are,  after 
all,  the  only  inheritance  that  stands  the  test  of  time. 
Wealth  gets  dissipated,  but  honors  shine  through  the 
tarnish  of  the  world's  forgetfulness.  If  a  child  has 
not  the  happiness  to  number  a  hero  among  his  pro- 
genitors, then  we  can  at  least  teach  him  to  become 
one  himself;  to  found  a  family;  which  is  one  of  the 


328       THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

noblest  of  ambitions,  and  one  inspiring  to  the  true 
American  spirit.  But  it  is  a  poor  policy  to  affect 
a  humility  about  life  which  we  really  do  not  feel, 
and  assure  our  young  people  that  it  makes  no  dif- 
ference what  sort  of  society  they  go  into,  so  they 
achieve  success  in  affairs. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  are  continually  classifying 
people;  not  so  much  by  their  merits,  which  we  know 
only  through  personal  experience,  as  by  their  appear- 
ance. There  are  stages  of  refinement,  and  we  in- 
stinctively choose  for  friends  those  belonging  to  our 
own  level.  And  we  have  a  right  to  so  choose  them. 
If  our  worldly  circumstances  are  below  our  worth  we 
need  not  associate  with  persons  whose  only  likeness  to 
ourselves  is  in  the  amount  of  their  income.  Must 
we  take  for  bosom  friends  an  illiterate  sign  painter 
because  he  earns  with  his  hands  the  same  income  we 
earn  by  our  brains,  and  lives  as  well,  so  far  as  ma- 
terial circumstances  are  concerned  ?  One  blessed  ad- 
vantage of  this  country  is  that  a  person  who  is  mani- 
festly "  gentle  "  in  virtue  and  taste  belongs  by  right 
to  the  highest  society.  There  is  no  possibility  of 
realizing  an  ideal  "  social  equality  "  so  long  as  there 
exists  great  differences  in  the  capacities  of  indi- 


CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY  329 

victuals.     In  our  inmost  hearts  we  do  not  believe  in  it, 
nor  want  it.     Why  then,  keep  up  the  pretense? 

It  is  of  very  little  use  to  be  hypocritical  with  our 
children ;  to  call  public  schools  "  great  social  level- 
ers,"  and  allow  them  to  choose  their  playmates  from 
the  street.  Our  preferences,  our  innate  sense  of  pro- 
priety break  through  the  thin  crust  of  determined 
virtue  at  the  first  alarm  of  an  undesirable  friendship. 
We  cannot  have  Clarence  inviting  Mike  Dolan  into 
the  house,  nor  let  Beatrice  bring  Susan  Eooney  to 
dinner.  Why  not  ?  They  are  undeniably  good  chil- 
dren in  their  way;  truthful,  good-humored,  amusing. 
But  certain  unmistakable  traits,  certain  little  defects 
of  manner,  certain  tendencies  toward  lower  standards 
of  thought  and  principle,  set  them  apart  from  us. 
The  gulf  may  be  bridged  by  the  development  on  their 
part  of  remarkable  talents  and  energy,  at  some  future 
time, — such  opportunities  our  country  affords — but 
at  present  our  good  sense  bids  us  desire  for  our  chil- 
dren companions  whose  social  status  is  similar  to  their 
own;  whose  education  and  training  swing  along  par- 
allel lines.  It  is  necessary  that  those  canons  of  so- 
ciety which  exact  deportment,  refinement  of  manner, 
pleasing  appearance,  be  obeyed  by  ourselves,  even  if 


330      THE  MOTHEE  IN  EDUCATION 

we  do  not  wish  them  recognized  by  our  children. 
And  notwithstanding  all  our  superior,  highly  demo- 
cratic talk,  we  enforce  them.  It  seems  to  me  that 
we  should  have  the  honesty  to  talk  and  act  alike. 
Either  make  our  theories  fit  our  practice  or  our 
practice  suit  our  theories;  and  acknowledge  both 
frankly  to  our  children. 

The  difference  between  theory  and  practice  leads 
to  misunderstandings  between  the  elders  and  juniors 
in  our  families.  The  children  are  at  first  honestly 
all  for  equality.  They  take  us  at  our  word.  Bit  by 
bit,  shame-facedly,  we  are  compelled  to  acknowledge 
the  hollowness  of  our  axioms;  little  by  little  permit 
them  to  see  into  the  unalterable  laws  that  govern  hu- 
man intercourse,  and  understand  that  while  worth  is 
worth  and  "  a  man's  a  man  for  a'  that "  yet  prac- 
tically, we  may  not  dine  with  the  gardener  nor  in- 
vite the  Italian  fruitman's  pretty  little  girls  to  our 
parties. 

Well  ?  Then  the  children  begin  to  learn  some- 
thing about  class  distinctions.  We  may  keep  the 
facts  concealed,  but  they  come  to  the  front  at  length 
because  they  are  facts,  like  the  rotation  of  the  earth. 
I  submit  the  question  whether  all  the  preliminary 


CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY  331 

humbugging  was  worth  while ;  whether  we  might  not 
better  do  as  they  do  in  the  Old  World  and  candidly 
admit  the  existence  of  social  degrees  and  prepare  the 
children  from  the  first  to  take  their  proper  place  in 
society.  With  the  one  distinct  advantage  peculiar 
to  Republican  governments,  that  while  we  are  born 
to  certain  spheres  and  only  evil-doing  degrades  us, 
great  talents  or  merit  may  raise  us  to  the  highest 
position. 

There  are  two  points  in  favor  of  the  European 
system  of  training.  It  is  rational,  insomuch  as  it 
does  not  try  to  do  what  cannot  really  be  done,  and 
break  down  in  the  attempt;  and  it  conduces  to  an 
excellent  end  —  self-restraint  and  self-control.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  in  this  respect  we  are  weak. 
With  us  the  individual  is  over-prominent.  Our  chil- 
dren are  not  taught  that  fight  and  beautiful  conduct 
consists  in  constantly  recognizing  and  deferring  to 
the  rights  of  others.  They  hear  little  of  the  claims  of 
society,  much  of  their  own  privileges  and  liberties. 
By  nature  and  example  they  are  energetic  and  ag- 
gressive and  they  carry  the  impulsiveness  of  child- 
hood into  the  acts  of  mature  life.  So  they  form  ties 
of  the  most  sacred  nature  without  at  all  comprehend- 


332       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

ing  that  the  destinies  of  other  individuals  are  bound 
up  with  their  own,  and  that  it  is  not  possible  to  sepa- 
rate one's  personal  interest  from  that  of  others. 

Our  young  people  seem  to  the  better  poised  and 
more  self-restrained  Europeans  young  heathen.  Fas- 
cinating because  innocent  and  frank  in  their  monopoly 
of  attention ;  but  for  all  that,  of  the  nature  of  sav- 
ages who  know  no  law  but  their  will,  no  negations 
save  the  limit  of  opportunity.  It  must  seem  to 
thoughtful  people  that  it  may  be  expedient  to  change 
all  this.  If  the  claims  of  society  are  real,  permanent 
and  governed  by  fixed  laws,  why  should  not  an  un- 
derstanding of  them  become  a  feature  of  home  train- 
ing in  every  household  ?  Without  false  shame,  we 
may  tell  our  children,  as  English  parents  unhesitat- 
ingly do,  that  one  of  their  prime  duties  is  to  learn 
to  get  on  well  with  the  world ;  that  one  should  preserve 
his  own  self-respect,  yet  give  deference  where  it  is 
due.  We  may  develop  in  them  those  faculties  that 
give  strength  to  character  and  still  diligently  cultivate 
at  the  same  time  those  minor  graces  which  are  the 
passports  to  good  society. 

Emerson,  our  saint  and  prophet,  the  simplest  of 
men  as  he  was  one  of  the  wisest,  bore  witness  to  the 


CHILDREN"  IN  SOCIETY  333 

importance  of  manner  and  tone.  "  Manners,"  he 
said,  in  one  of  those  wonderful  passages  that  remain 
to  us  as  beacons  in  the  dark  places  of  worldly  dis- 
illusionment, "  are  the  happy  way  of  doing  things ; 
each,  once  a  stroke  of  genius  or  of  love,  now  hardened 
into  usage.  They  form  at  last  a  rich  varnish  with 
which  the  routine  of  life  is  washed  and  its  details 
adorned.  If  they  are  superficial,  so  are  the  dew 
drops  which  give  such  a  depth  to  the  morning  mead- 
ows. .  .  .  The  power  of  manners  is  incessant  —  an 
element  as  unconcealable  as  fire.  The  nobility  can- 
not in  any  country  be  disguised,  and  no  more  in  a  re- 
public or  a  democracy  than  in  a  kingdom.  No  man 
can  resist  their  influence.  There  are  certain  manners 
which  are  learned  in  good  society,  of  that  force  that 
if  a  person  have  them,  he  or  she  must  be  considered, 
and  is  welcome  everywhere,  though  without  beauty, 
or  wealth,  or  genius.  Give  a  boy  address  and  ac- 
complishments, and  you  give  him  the  mastery  of 
palaces  and  fortunes  wherever  he  goes.  He  has  not 
the  trouble  of  earning  or  winning  them,  they  solicit 
him  to  enter  and  possess." 

However  wise  or  talented  a  person  may  be  we  do 
not  care  to  have  much  to  do  with  him  unless  he  is 


334       THE  MOTHER  IN  EDUCATION 

agreeable.  Diogenes  did  not  have  to  refuse  many 
invitations.  Many  very  great  men  are  admired  at  a 
distance  and  their  absence  from  scenes  of  pleasure 
sustained  with  cheerfulness.  Doubtless  there  are 
times  when  they  long  to  come  down  from  their  heights 
and  mingle  with  their  fellows  but  they  have  never 
learned  the  art  of  pleasing  and  they  suffer  the  nat- 
ural result.  Very  few  persons  can  be  happy  isolated 
thus  from  their  fellows.  Superiority  is  meager 
satisfaction  for  the  heart.  For  one  person  who  can 
afford  to  isolate  himself  and  live  wholly  on  his  own 
mental  resources  there  are  thousands  who  feel  the 
need  of  sympathy  and  affection  which  is  constantly 
passing  round  among  people  who  are  even  casually 
thrown  together.  There  are  comparatively  few  times 
in  our  lives  when  we  crave  or  can  respond  to  intense 
love.  If  it  was  constantly  proffered  us  it  would  ex- 
haust the  heart.  The  sweet,  homely  courtesies  of 
everyday  life,  a  smile  that  is  given  without  a  thought, 
a  pleasant  phrase  that  is  uttered  merely  through  the 
habit  of  politeness,  are  as  a  wholesome,  refreshing  cur- 
rent that  flows  gently  through  society,  free  to  all  who 
can  pay  the  little  price  that  entitles  to  its  advantages. 
Every  one  is  naturally  in  society,  whether  he 


CHILDREN  IN  SOCIETY  335 

chooses  or  not.  He  is  born  into  it.  During  a  life- 
time a  person  may  pass  from  one  clique  to  another, 
like  a  rolling  marble;  there  are  so  many  cliques  that 
he  must  find  his  requirements  met  at  last.  But 
whether  he  has  little  or  much  to  do  with  others  he 
cannot  escape  some  contact  with  them.  And  it  is 
essential  for  his  satisfaction  and  for  his  worldly  suc- 
cess that  he  should  know  how  to  make  a  good  impres- 
sion. I  would  tell  a  child  even  this  much :  that  it  is 
policy  to  learn  the  accomplishments  that  are  expected 
from  him  in  the  place  he  is  by  birth  entitled  to  oc- 
cupy. Certain  things  are  due  to  society  from  him. 
If  he  chooses  to  go  beyond  them  it  is  well.  He  will 
naturally  rise  to  the  level  of  his  talent.  But  the 
little  amenities  of  life  he  must  know;  how  to  bear 
himself,  how  to  dress, —  whether  richly  or  plainly, 
at  least,  with  good  taste;  how  to  converse  and  above 
all,  how  to  restrain  his  impulses  and  act  with  dignity 
and  self-possession. 

This  ease,  accompanied  by  modesty,  is  the  most  at- 
tractive demeanor  a  young  person  can  practise.  For 
the  world  always  regards  with  considerable  interest 
the  person  who  mingles  with  it  gracefully  and  still 
gives  an  impression  of  reserved  force. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Letters  and  Lectures  on  Education,  Johann  Friedrich 

Herbart 

How  Gertrude  Teaches  her  Children,  Pestalozzi 
Herbart  and  the  Herbartians,  Charles  DeGarmo 
The  Meaning  of  Education,  N.  M.  Butler 
Infant  Mind,  W.  Preyer 
The  Psychology  of  Number,  McLellan 
Glimpses  of  the  Animate  World,  Johonnot 
Story  of  the  Plants,  Grant  Allen 
Methods  of  Study  in  Natural  History,  Agassiz 
Learning  to  Draw,  Viollet  le  Due 
Drawing  from  Memory,  M  me.  Calve 
Topics  in  Geography,  Nichols 
Countries  of  Europe,  A.  L.  0.  E. 
Study  of  Language,  Marcel 

Art  of  Teaching  and  Studying  Languages,  F.   Gouin 
Special  Methods  in  Geography,  Charles  McMua-ray 
The  Wide  World,  Issued  through  Ginn  and  Company 
Geographical  Nature  Studies,  Issued  through  Ginn  and 

Company 
Trotters'  Lessons  in  the  New  Geography,  issued  through 

D.  C.  Heath  and  Company 
Hall's    Methods    of    Teaching    History,    published    by 

D.  C.  Heath  and  Company 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Household  History  of  the  United  States  and  Its 

People,  Edward  Eggleston 
Some  Great  Stories  and  How  to  Tell  Them,  Eicliafd 

Thomas  Wyche 
Heroes    Every    Child    Should    Know,    Hamilton    W. 

Mabie 

Stories  and  Story  Telling,  E.  P.  St.  John 
The  Story  of  the  Greeks,  H.  A.  Guerber 
Picturesque  Geographical  Headings,  Chas.  F.  King 
Stories  to  Tell  to  Children,  Sara  Cone  Bryant 
How  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children,  Sara  Cone  Bryant 
Days  and  Deeds  a  Hundred  Years  Ago,  Gertrude  L. 

Stone  and  M.  Grace  Fickett 
Everyday  Life  in  the  Colonies,  Gertrude  L.  Stone  and  M. 

Grace  Fickett 
Merrie  England,  Grace  Greenwood.     New  edition  issued 

through  Ginn  and  Company 
Heroes  of  Everyday  Life,  Fanny  E.  Coe 
About  Old  Story  Tellers,  Donald  G.  Mitchell 
Our  Young  Folks'  Plutarch,  edited  by  Rosalie  Kaufman 
Historic  Stories  and  Ballads,  Rupert  S.  Holland 
Peeps  at  many  Lands;  Italy,  Sweden,  France,  England, 

John  Fennimore 


VAIL-BALLOU   CO.,    BINGHAMTON   AND   NEW  YORK 


LC 

37 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


S.-rii-s  '.(  I  si; 


A    000911  136    o 


